*t>t/'M&r YOUNG U^lVERSttl

^.

THE PAINTERS OF FLORENCE

First Edition

January

1901

Reprinted

September

1901

Reprinted

October

1902

Reprinted

October

1906

Reprinted

May

1908

Second Edition (1/-) .

June

1910

Reprinted

February

1911

'^'a//e^d- &Soe^ccr€-ii.^.tii:.

^■fiey <yLe.a^ oj/t£ey J^U^ra/t^riy

~>-j

THE PAINTERS
OF FLORENCE

FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY

BY

JULIA CARTWRIGHT
(Mrs ADY)

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

**Co?a bella mortal passa, e non cTarte." — Leonardo da Vincsl

NEW YORK
E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY

1915

fiR'SHAM YOUNG UNfVERSnY
PROVO, UTAH

PREFACE

The Florentine School of Painting is in many re-
spects the finest and most interesting in the world.
If its masters cannot be said to equal the Venetians
in depth and splendour of colour, they surpass those
of all other cities in beauty of line and elevation of
thought, in grandeur of conception and intellectual
force. During the great revival of art and learning
which took place in Italy, from the beginning of
the fourteenth to the close of the sixteenth century,
Florence took the lead among Italian cities and became
the home of the literary, artistic and scientific move-
ment. Both the political conditions of the state and
national character of the people combined to produce
an intellectual and artistic supremacy only equalled by
that of Athens in days of old. The Florentine artist
grew up in a free and prosperous city, surrounded by
an atmosphere of culture in which the passion for
beauty was allied with a keenly critical faculty. He
found wealthy patrons to encourage and reward him,
and a public quick to understand and appreciate his
skill and to judge of his merits. His own creative
powers, thus stimulated, found expression in works
of art which became famous far beyond the borders

vii

viii PREFACE

of Tuscany. The painters and sculptors of Florence
travelled all over Italy and exerted a wide-spread
influence on the schools of other cities, from the days
of Giotto, the great awakener, to those of Leonardo
and Michelangelo. At the same time, Florence became
a centre to which the finest intellects and best artists
were attracted from Umbria and Lombardy. Here
Gentile da Fabriano and Piero dei Franceschi, Luca
Signorelli and Perugino came in search of the training
which they could not find elsewhere ; here young
Raphael studied the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel
and the cartoons of Leonardo and Michelangelo.
And to-day, across the lapse of ages, Florence draws
us still. The power of her spell is mighty still, and
leads us to linger among the wonders of Renaissance
art that adorn the churches and convents, the halls
and palaces, upon the banks of Arno. Although the
ravages of time and the neglect of man have doomed
many precious works to destruction, enough is still left
to show us the glory of the art of Florence in her
golden days. Enough remains to give us a clear and
definite idea of the style of each individual artist in
the long roll of illustrious masters who succeeded each
other from the days of Giotto to those of Michelangelo,
and who were, many of them, not only painters, but
architects, sculptors, goldsmiths, men of letters, and
even poets. It is a list of famous names and striking
personalities such as no other art-history in the world
can offer.

PREFACE ix

Since Mr. Ruskin, nearly fifty years ago, first opened
our eyes to the wonder and beauty of early Florentine
painting, a vast amount of careful study has been be-
stowed upon the subject by scholars of all nationalities.
In England, the earnest and thoughtful writings of
Lord Lindsay, of Mrs. Jameson and Lady Eastlake,
have been succeeded by the more serious labours of
Sir Joseph Crowe and Signor Cavalcaselle, whose
history of Italian painting still retains a high place
among the best authorities. In France, M. Miintz
and M. Lafenestre, in Germany, Dr. Bode, Dr.
Woltmann and Dr. Woermann and a host of other
well-known critics have followed in their steps. Above
all, Signor Morelli, by his introduction of a more exact
and scientific study, has inaugurated a new epoch in
art-history. During the last few years his method has
been pursued in different directions, with far-reacliing
results, by such distinguished connoisseurs as Signor
Frizzoni, Dr. Richter, Dr. Wickhoff of Vienna, Dr.
Schmarzow and Mr. Berenson. At the same time a
flood of new light has been thrown upon the lives of
Renaissance artists by recent researches in the archives
of Florence, and the records of monastic houses and
noble families. Many of these newly-discovered
documents were incorporated in Signor Milanesi's
edition of Vasari's " Lives/' and are mentioned by Sir
Henry Layard in the latest edition of Kugler's
"Handbook of Italian Painting." But each year
brings new facts to light and adds to our knowledge

X PREFACE

of a subject which must always be of deep and
absorbing interest.

The increased interest now taken in Italian
art by travellers, creates a distinct demand for a
book in which the results of these researches are
brought together, and the student is supplied with a
brief account of the lives and works of the chief
Florentine painters.

Among the authorities whose names are given in
the following list, my thanks are especially due to Mr.
Berenson, while I am indebted to Mr. Roger Fry for
many valuable suggestions on technical points, and
to Signor Alinari and Signor Anderson for their kind
permission to reproduce several of their excellent
photographs of Florentine masterpieces.

Julia Cartwright.

Storia della Pittura in Italia," per G. B. Cavalcaselle and J. A.

Crowe (Lemonnier).
* Le Vite de' piu Eccellenti Pittori," scritte da Giorgio Vasari,

con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi

(Sansoni).
" Delle Notiziede' Professori del Disegno," di Filippo Baldinucci.
" Carteggio inedito d' Artisti dei Secoli xiv. xv. xvi." dal Dott.

Giovanni Gaye.
" Der Cicerone. Eine Anleitung zum Genuss der Kunstwerke

Italiens," von Jacob Burckhardt.
" Italian Painters," by Giovanni Morelli, translated by C. J.

Ffoulkes. (Murray.)
"The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance," by Bernhard

Berenson. Third edition. (Putnam, 1909.)

PREFACE li

** La Peinture Italienne," par Georges Lafenestre.

" La Peinture en Europe — Florence," par G. Lafenestre et E.

Richtenberger.
" Geschichte der Malerei," von Dr. Alfred Woltmann und Dr.

Woermann.
" Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste," von Dr. Schnaase.
" Franz von Assisi und die Anfang der Kunst der Renaissance

in Italien," H. Thode.
" Masaccio," von August Schmarzow.
" Masaccio," F. G. Knudtzon.

" L'Arte Italiana del Rinascimento," da Gustavo Frizzoni.
" Histoire de I'Art pendant la Renaissance," Eugene Miintz.
" Lectures on the National Gallery," by Dr. J. P. Richter.
" Sandro Botticelli," von Ernst Steinmann.
" Sandro Botticelli," von H. Ulmann.
" II Campo Santo di Pisa," J. B. Supine.
" Fra Angelico," J. B. Supino.
" Botticelli," J. B. Supino.
" Piero di Cosimo," von Fritz Knapp.
" Leonardo da Vinci," par Eugene Miintz.
" Ricerche intorno a Leonardo da Vinci," da Gustavo Uzielli.
" Life of Michelangelo," by J. A. Symonds.
" Kunst und Kiinstler des Mittelalters, herausgegehen," von Dr.

Dohme.
" Sandro Botticelli," by Herbert Home. (Bell, 1908.)
" Giottino," Oswald Sir^n : 1908.

"Andrea Verrocchio," by M. Cruttwell. (Duckworth, 1904.)
" L'Archivio Storico dell' Arte " : 1888- 1900.
"La Gazette des Beaux Arts" : 1890-1900.
" Zeitschrift fur bildenden Kunste."
" Jahrbuch der K. Preuss. Sammlungen" : Vols. L-XIL
" Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani."
The Burlington Magazine: 1 903-1 910.
The Monthly Review. (Murray, 1900- 1903.)

CONTENTS

I. CIMABUE (1240- 1 302) . . ,

II. GIOTTO (1276- 1 335)

III. THE GIOTTESCHI (1330-I430)

IV. MASOLINO (1383-I447) . .
V. MASACCIO (140I-1428) .

VI. ERA ANGELICO (1387-1455) .

VII. PAOLO UCCELLO (1397-1475).

VIII. ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO (1390-1457)
IX. DOMENICO VENEZIANO (1400-1461)

X. ALESSO BALDOVINETTI ( 1 427- 1 499)
XL FRA FILIPPO LIPPI (1406-1469) .
XIL FRANCESCO PESELLINO (1422-I457)

XIII. BENOZZO GOZZOLI (1420-1498)

XIV. COSIMO ROSSELLI (1439-1507)

r ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO (1431-1498)^
IpIERO POLLAIUOLO ( 1 443- 1 496) J
XVL ANDREA VERROCCHIO (1435-I488)

XVII. SANDRO BOTTICELLI (1444-1510) .

XVIIL FILIPPINO LIPPI (1457-1504) .

rAGB

I

II

47

73

88
100
118

125

130
137
143
157
161

177

182

190

196

215

XIV

CONTENTS

5

XIX. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO (1449-I494)
XX. LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)
XXI. LORENZO DI CREDI (1459-IS37)
XXIL PIERO DI COSIMO (1462-1521) .
( "kxiIL FRA BARTOLOMMEO (1475-1517)

XXIV. MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI (1474-1515)
V XXV. ANDREA DEL SARTO (1486-1^31)
XXVL FRANCIABIGIO (1482-1525)
XXVII MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (1475-1564)

•f

PACK
229

242

270

278

287

301

312

329

137

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HEAD OF THE VIRGIN, FROM THE CARTOON

BY LEONARDO DA VINCI (ROYAL

ACADEMY) .... Frontispiece

DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS. (SANTA CROCE).

^^^'^'^O Tofacepage 38

From aj>hotogra^h by Messrs Alinari, of Florence,

MADONNA. (S. MARIA NOVELLA). ANDREA

ORCAGNA . . . . „ „ 62

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, 0/ Florence.

THE FEAST OF HEROD. (CASTIGLIONE

D'OLONA). MASOLINO . . . „ „ 82

From a Photograph by Messrs Anderson, of Rome.

THE EXPULSION FROM PARADISE. (BRAN-

CACCI CHAPEL). MASACCIO . • » ,, 94

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence,

ANNUNCIATION. (SAN MARCO). FRA

ANGELICO . .

• • • j> „ IIO

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS.

(UFFIZI). DOMENICO VENEZIANO . „ „ 134

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

MADONNA ADORING THE CHILD. (aCCA-

DEMIA). FRA FILIPPO LIPPI . • w „ I46

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence,

xTi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LORENZO DE' MEDICI. (PALAZZO RIC-

CARDl). BENOZZO GOZZOLI . . To face page 164

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

FLORENTINE LADY. (MUSEO POLDI-

PEZZOLI, MILAN). ANDREA VERROCCHIO „ „ I94

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

PALLAS. (PALAZZO PITTi). SANDRO BOTTI-
CELLI . . . . . „ „ 202
From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence,

THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD. (BADIA).

FILIPPINO LIPPI . . . „ „ 218

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

FLORENTINE LADY. (S. MARIA NOVELLA).

DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO . . „ „ 236

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

ANNUNCIATION. (UFFIZl). LORENZO DI

CREDI . . . . . » » 272

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

LA BELLA SIMONETTA. (CHANTILLY). PIERO

DI COSIMO . . . . » >:

From a Photograph by Messrs Braun, of Paris.

282

GROUP FROM THE MADONNA DELLA
MISERICORDIA. (LUCCA). FRA BARTO-

LOMMEO . . . . »» » 296

From a photograph by Messrs Alinari, of Florence.

MADONNA AND CHILD. (UFFIZl). ANDREA

DEL SARTO . • • • ♦> !

From a photograph by Messrs Alinabi, of Florence,

318

THE PAINTERS OF FLORENCE

CIMABUE

I 240- I 302

The origin of Florentine painting still remains
wrapt in obscurity. But it is certain that in the dark
and troubled times that followed the barbarian in-
vasion and the fall of the Roman Empire, the practice
of art never wholly died away in Italy. After the
dissolution of Charlemagne's Empire, in the ninth
century, it probably reached the lowest ebb, and it is
only in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that signs
of renewed activity, both among painters and mosaic-
workers, can be traced. Two chief influences are
apparent in the rude style of ' Lie native artists of
mediaeval Italy. On the one hand we have the
Roman tradition that lingered on in the early mosaics
of Ravenna, and in the remains of painting and sculp-
ture which adorn the Catacombs. The civilisation of
ancient Rome had sunk too deeply into the heart of
Italy to be quite forgotten. Not only in the Eternal
City, but all through Italy, remnants of classical art,
temples and sarcophagi, still kept alive the spark of

A

2 CIMABUE [1240-

antique culture in the heart of the people, and de-
based pagan types figured in the earliest representa-
tion of Christian subjects. This influence was
always re-appearing in one form or another — in
the classical architecture of churches, such as the
Baptistery or San Miniato of Florence, and the de-
corative sculpture which we still see on twelfth
century fagades in Umbria, or again in the antique
forms adopted by the Cosmati artists and mosaic-
workers of mediaeval Rome. On the other hand there
was the influence of Byzantium, which from the
tenth to the thirteenth centuries supplied not only
Eastern but Western Europe with its art, and became
the medium through which classical traditions were
handed on to the masters of France, Germany and
Italy. This influence was chiefly felt in Venice and
in Sicily, but at one time it held considerable sway
in Tuscany, especially at Siena, where Byzantine
traditions still prevailed in Giotto's time. To a
certain extent the same influences were apparent in
the Florentine art of the day, although here they
were mingled with other elements, and the lifelike
feeling and spontaneous vivacity of native art asserted
itself more fully at an earlier period. But even in
Florence, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
the technique of artists was, for the most part, learnt
at Constantinople, and the types in use were those
laid down by the second Council of Nicea, and rigidly
followed in the representation of Christian subjects
It was only towards the close of the thirteenth
century that the great revival came, and the strong
tide of the new Christian art swept away the linger-
ing remnants of decadent classicism and eflete

1302] ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 3

Byzantine tradition. The true leader of that move-
ment, the real founder of the Italian Renaissance, was
St. Francis of Assisi. He it was who by boldly pro-
claiming the brotherhood of the human race, and the
equal rights of each individual soul in the sight of
God, gave life a new glory and filled the old truths
with new and diviner meaning. He it was who first
set forth the love of God and the tender human
relations of the Virgin Mother and her Child, and
whose glowing eloquence and passionate devotion
inspired artists with a new conception, which liyed
on through the next three centuries to reach its
highest expression in the perfect art of Raphael. He
it was, again, who, seeing the face of God in the
beauty of the natural world, praising Him for the
radiant splendour of his good brother Messer Sole^
and calling the birds his little sisters, first opened the
eyes of men to the wonder and loveliness about them,
and made them see that this earth was very good.
The enthusiasm of his new Gospel stirred the hearts
of all Italy, and bore fruit in a thousand different
forms. Instead of seeking desert solitudes and re-
treats hidden from the world, the friars of the new
order settled in the most populous quarters of the
cities. The crowds who flocked to hear them preach,
the wealth with which they were endowed by rich
citizens, led to the foundation of churches and
convents in every town and village. These in their
turn created a new and sudden demand for pictorial
decoration, and thus the relations between the Mendi-
cant friars and the burgher class produced the art of
the Renaissance.

The natural artistic capacity of the Tuscan race and

4 CIMABUE [1240-

the political conditions of the time were both favour-
able to the rise of this new Christian art. The first
great master of the Renaissance was the sculptor
Niccol6 Pisano, a man of undoubtedly Tuscan birth,
who, by forming his style on antique models, laid the
foundation for all future progress. But although
Niccolo began, about 1260, by carving Madonnas and
angels, after the pattern of the bas-reliefs on ancient
sarcophagi, before the end of his career he felt the
power of another influence. This was the Gothic
movement, which had already produced such splendid
results in the architecture and sculpture of French
Cathedrals, and was very rapidly spreading south of
the Alps. While the romances of French chivalry
and the songs of Provengal trouveres became every
day more popular in Italy, French ivories and
miniatures gradually found their way into Tuscany,
and French artists were invited to the Courts of
Angevin and Hohenstaufen princes at Naples and
Palermo. This Gothic feeling it was which modified
Niccolo Pisano's conceptions in later years, and
inspired the bas-reliefs and statues of his son
Giovanni with that wonderful dramatic sense and
vehement energy which brings him so near to Giotto.
The new movement soon made itself strongly felt in
Florence, where, before the end of the century, a
scholar of Niccolo Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio reared
the walls of the Gothic Duomo and the Franciscan
church of Santa Croce, and planned the lofty tower
of the Palazzo Vecchio. Painting in its turn felt
the new impulse, and the revived artistic activity is
evident in the large numbers of painters whose names
appear in contemporary records. By the laws of

1302] EARLY FLORENTINE PAINTERS 5

Florence, painters belonged to the Guild of doctors
and apothecaries, which was one of the seven Major
Arts, or higher class of trades, and each artist was
required to matriculate in this body before he could
practise as an independent master. This close con-
nection between painting and medicine dates back to
very early days, and receives further illustration from
the fact that St. Luke was the patron of both doctors
and artists. During the last ten years of the
thirteenth century more than twenty masters, who
all had workshops and apprentices, are mentioned as
living in Florence, and a street in the heart of the
city bore the name of the Via dei Pittori. Among
all these, the only painter who attained a high
degree of reputation was Giovanni Cenni, surnamed
Cimabue, after some member of a noble Florentine
family by whom he was adopted, and generally
known by this name. Both Dante and Vasari speak
of him as the foremost artist of his age, and Vasari
relates how this man was born, by the will of God, in
the year 1240, to give the first light to the art of
painting. In the account of Cimabue's life which
follows, the historian tells us that as a boy he was sent
to study letters in the Dominican convent of Santa
Maria Novella, where instead of learning grammar he
spent his time in watching the Greek painters at work
in the neighbouring church. Since Santa Maria
Novella was only built when Cimabue was forty
years of age, this statement can hardly be correct ; but
Vasari is probably right in saying that the Florentine
master owed his training to artists of Byzantine
origin. The remainder of Vasari's biography is of the
same legendary nature. After enumerating Cimabue's

6 CIMABUE t"4o^

chief altar-pieces and frescoes in the churches of
Florence, of Pisa and Assisi, he describes the great
Madonna which he painted for the chapel of the
Rucellai family in Santa Maria Novella, and tells us
how, in the ecstasy of their admiration, the people
bore the picture in solemn procession, to the sound of
trumpets, from the master's house to the church. " It
is further reported," adds the biographer, " that while
Cimabue was painting this picture, in a garden near
the gate of San Pietro, King Charles of Anjou passed
through Florence, and the magistrates conducted
him to see the painting of Cimabue. When this
work was shown to the king, it had not yet been seen
by any one, so all the men and women in Florence
hastened in crowds to see it with the greatest
demonstrations of joy. And the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood afterwards called the quarter Borgo
Allegri, a name it has ever since retained, although
in course of time it became enclosed within the city
walls."

Since Charles of Anjou visited Florence in 1267,
and the Rucellai Madonna was evidently painted at
a later period of Cimabue's career, Vasari's tale, it is
plain, must be accepted with reserve. Modern
criticism, it must be owned, has dealt rudely with
this master's fame. Seventy years ago Rumohr
boldly pronounced Vasari's account of Cimabue to
be the pure invention of Florentine municipal vanity,
and Dr. Wickhoff has lately declared that it is
doubtful whether a single painting by Cimabue is now
in existence. None the less, a careful examination of
the works which bear his name may enable us to
form a clear and definite idea of the old Florentine's

1302] CIMABUE'S MADONNAS 7

style. Three of the Madonnas ascribed to him by
Vasari still remain : the altar-piece which he painted
for the monks of the Vallombrosan Order in the
Church of the Trinita, now in the Accademia of
Florence ; the picture in the Louvre, which he
executed for the Franciscans of Pisa — a work which
Vasari tells us "brought him high praise and large
rewards," and the Rucellai Madonna, in Santa Maria
Novella. All three of these pictures are painted on
a gold ground, and follow the laws of Byzantine
tradition. In all three Virgins we see the same long,
curved nose, the same droop of the head, the same
elliptic iris, oval-shaped eyes, and small mouth drawn
on one side. Again, in all three pictures we see the
same stiff, triangular folds of drapery, the same action
of the attendant angels, who clasp the throne as if
supporting it, and the same shaped throne, which, in
each case, is not of stone, as in Duccio's altar-pieces,
but of carved wood. The Rucellai Madonna is
evidently of later date than Cimabue's other altar-
pieces, and bears marks of a distinct advance in his
artistic development ; but the general features remain
the same, and the strong likeness of the Virgin's type
of face to that of an angel in his Academy picture,
seems to prove that both works are by the hand of the
same master. A critic of authority. Dr. Richter, has,
indeed, lately ascribed this Madonna to Duccio, on
the strength of a document which shows that the
Sienese master received a commission to paint an
altar-piece for Santa Maria Novella in 1285 ; but we
have no proof that this order was ever executed, and
it is far more probable that it was finally given to the
Florentine Cimabue. The general inferiority of the

8 CIMABUE [1240-

whole conception in grace and feeling, to that of Duccio,
is evident at first sight, while a close comparison of
this picture, with the great Sienese master's genuine
works reveals a variety of minor differences in
technique and style. We may therefore safely accept
the old tradition, recorded by Vasari, and confirmed
by an earlier and more trustworthy writer, Albertini
(15 10), and believe that this altar-piece, which
still hangs in the Rucellai Chapel, is the last and best
of Cimabue's Madonnas, the picture which made the
heart of old Florence glad, and was borne in triumph
through her streets.

Some remains of Cimabue's frescoes may still be
found at Assisi, where, Vasari tells us, he was invited,
" in company with certain Greek masters, to paint the
roof of the Lower Church of S. Francesco, together with
the life of Jesus Christ and that of St. Francis, on the
walls." The learned and accurate Franciscan friar,
Petrus Rudolphus, who wrote a careful description of
the great church in 1586, records that Cimabue and
Giotto both worked there, and Ghiberti, writing early
in the fifteenth century, says that Cimabue painted
the whole of the Upper Church of Assisi. Most of
the early frescoes in the Lower Church have been
destroyed, and the hands of many different artists are
apparent in the paintings of the Upper Church ; but in
the south transept of the Lower Church, close to the
noble works painted by Giotto a few years later, we
find a Madonna attended by angels, bearing strong
marks of Cimabue's style, which his great scholar may
well have left untouched out of respect to his master.
This Virgin is of the same Byzantine type as those in
his other altar-pieces, the throne is of the same carved

1302] FRESCOES AT ASSISI 9

wood, and by the side of the attendant angels a
full-length figure of St. Francis appears on the wall.
Cimabue's hand may be also recognised in the angels
in the triforium of the Upper Church and in a large
Crucifixion on the wall of the south transept. This
last-named fresco is completely ruined, but in the
figures grouped around the Cross, and the gestures of
the weeping angels who hover in the air, we trace the
first attempts to render natural feeling, the first crude
efforts of native Italian art to break through the tram-
mels of Byzantine tradition. Both here and in the
tempera altar-pieces we recognise the spark of vitality
which Cimabue was the first to introduce in Florentine
painting, and which explains the great reputation
which he enjoyed among his contemporaries. A
proud and arrogant man, as he is described by Dante's
oldest commentator, Cimabue lived to experience the
vanity of earthly renown, and to see his fame eclipsed
by that of his young scholar.

" Credette Cimabue nella pintura
Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido,
SI che la fama di colui s'oscura."

The last works of Cimabue were executed at Pisa,
where he painted some frescoes in the hospital of
Santa Chiara, and, in 1302, received a sum in payment,
at the rate of ten soldi a day, for a mosaic of a
colossal St. John on the vault of the Duomo. Soon
afterwards he died, and was buried within the newly
raised walls of his friend Arnolfo's Duomo, where a
Latin epitaph was inscribed upon his tomb, saying
that in his lifetime Cimabue held the field in paintings
and now holds the stars of Heaven.

As an artist, Cimabue was distinctly inferior to his

10 CIMABUE ti240-i3«>2

contemporary, the Sienese Diiccio, the last illustrious
Byzantine master, and still more inferior to his own
scholar Giotto, the first of the great Florentines ; but
he deserves to be remembered as a painter whose
work gave the first promise of a return to nature, and
who may justly be called a herald of the coming
dawn.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Accademia delle belle Arti: 102. Madonna
and Child, with Angels and Prophets.
„ S. Maria Novella : Rucellai Chapel:

Madonna and Child with Angels.^
Assist. — Upper Church: Frescoes — Crucifixion,
Angels.
„ Lower Churchy S. transept: Madonna and

Angels with St. Francis.
Pisa. — Duomo: Mosaic of St. John.
Paris. — Louvre: 1260. Madonna and Child, with six
Angels.

' Not only Dr. Richter, but Dr. Wickhoff and Mr. Langton Douglas,
hold the Rucellai Madonna to be the work of Duccio, while Signer Suida
and others ascribe it neither to Cimabue nor Duccio, but to an unknown
Sienese artist.

II

GIOTTO

1276-1335

"In a village of Etruria," writes Lorenzo Ghiberti,

the oldest historian of the Florentine Renaissance,

" Painting took her rise." In other words, Giotto di

Bondone was born in the year 1276, at Colle, in the

Commune of Vespignano, a village of the Val Mugello

fourteen miles from Florence. There the boy, who

had been called Angiolo, after his grandfather, and

went by the diminutive name of Angiolotto, or Giotto,

kept his father's flocks on the grassy slopes of the

Apennines, and was found one day by Cimabue as

he rode over the hills, drawing a sheep with a sharp

stone upon a rock. Full of surprise at the child's

talent for drawing, the great painter asked him if he

would go back with him to Florence, to which both

the boy and his father, a poor peasant named

Bondone, gladly agreed. Thus, at ten years old,

Giotto was taken straight from the sheep-folds and

apprenticed to the first painter in Florence. Such

is the story told by Ghiberti and confirmed by

Leonardo da Vinci, who, writing half a century before

Vasari, remarks that Giotto, being born in the

mountains, took Nature for his guide, and began by

u

I a GIOTTO [1276-

drawing the sheep and goats which he herded on the
rocks around him.

Another version of the incident is given by an
early commentator of Dante, who wrote towards the
end of the fourteenth century, a few years before
Ghiberti. According to him Giotto was apprenticed
to a wool-merchant of Florence, but, instead of
going to work, spent his time in watching the
artists in Cimabue's shop ; upon which Bondone
applied to the great master, who consented to
teach the boy painting. The natural vivacity
and intelligence of the young student soon made
him as great a favourite in Cimabue's workshop
as in his native village, while his extraordinary
aptitude for drawing became every day more apparent.
The legends of his marvellous skill, the stories of the
fly that Cimabue vainly tried to brush off his picture,
of the round O which he drew before the Pope's
envoy with one sweep of his pencil, are proofs of the
wonder and admiration which Giotto's first attempts
to follow nature more closely excited among his
contemporaries. No doubt the boldness and origin-
ality of his genius socn led him to abandon the
purely conventional style of art then in use, and to
seek after a more natural and lifelike form of ex-
pression. And early in his career he was probably
influenced by the example of the sculptor Giovanni
Pisano, whose fiery energy and strong dramatic
sense were tending in the same direction, and who
was actively engaged on his great works in Tuscany
and Umbria at this time.

The earliest examples of Giotto's style that remain
to us are some small panels at Munich, in which the

13351 EARLY WORKS 13

Last Judgment, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata,
and several scenes from the Passion are repre-
sented, as well as a Crucifixion and Madonna in
which we see his first attempts at rendering natural
gesture and expression. We find the qualities in
a still higher degree in another charming little
panel, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple,
which was long in England, and is now in Mrs.
Gardner's collection at Boston. A larger and better
known work is the Madonna and Angels, in the
Academy at Florence, which, although decidedly
archaic in type and proportion, has a vigour and
reality, a human life and warmth, that is wholly
wanting in Cimabue's Madonna in the same room.
The two pictures, hanging as they do side by side,
afford a living proof of the truth of Dante's famous
lines : " Credette Cimabue nella pintura^ Tener lo
campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido" But it is to Assisi
that we must turn for a fuller record of the great
master's training and development.

Here, in the old Umbrian city where St. Francis had
lived and died, was the great double church which
the alms of Christendom had raised above his burial-
place. In 1228, two years only after the beloved
teacher's death, the work was begun ; first the Lower
Church, with the massive pillars, low round arches
and heavy vaulting that told the mediaeval Christian
of his pilgrimage through this vale of tears ; then, a
few years later, the Upper Church, with lofty Gothic
arches, slender shafts and jewelled windows, radiant
and luminous like some vision of the New Jerusalem.
The architect of this noble building, in which Tuscan,
Romanesque and Tuscan-Gothic are so happily com-

14 GIOTTO [1276-

bined, is now known to have been a Lombard
friar, Fra Filippo di Campello, and so speedily was
his work done, that by 1239 the lofty Campanile
was finished and the bells were hung. Even before
the consecration of the Upper Church, Tuscan
painters were employed to decorate the walls of the
Lower Church with frescoes, and thus the shrine of
St. Francis became the cradle of early Italian art.
All the different currents of thought from East and
West, all the varied elements that were to influence
the art of Giotto — Greek and Roman, Gothic and
Byzantine — seem to meet in this sacred spot, this
fortunate Assisi of which Dante sang as blessed
above all the other cities in Italy. Here, among the
ruined paintings which still adorn the walls of the
Upper Church, we find traces of the works of thos^
Greek artists, whom Vasari mentions, side by side
with frescoes which plainly reveal their Roman origin.
Many of the Old Testament subjects along the upper
course of the nave bear a marked likeness to the
contemporary mosaics executed in S. Maria Maggiore
of Rome, and justify Crowe and Cavalcaselle's
suggestion, that one of the artists employed at Assisi
may have been the same Filippo Rusutti whose
signature appears on some of these frescoes. Unfor-
tunately the records of the Franciscan convent are
silent as to the painters of the frescoes which cover
the walls of the great church, and while we are told
the names of the carpenters and masons who
were employed, and the exact date of the year and
month when the leading of the windows or plaster
of the walls was repaired, neither Cimabue nor Giotto
are once mentioned. But Ghiberti, Vasari and the

1335] GIOTTO AT ASSISI 15

later Franciscan historian, Petrus Rudolphus, all
agree in saying that Giotto came to Assisi with his
master Cimabue, and there painted the lower course
of frescoes in the nave of the Upper Church. Here
for the first time we have twenty-eight scenes from
the story of St. Francis, the glorioso povereW di Dio^ as
described in the life of the Saint by Bonaventura.
That story belonged to no remote past, but to the
painter's own age and land. The life of Francis
had been lived in this very city of Assisi, in the
valley of Tiber. The man of God had walked up
and down these white, dusty streets, and had gone
in and out among the people, sharing their daily joys
and cares, feeding the hungry and nursing the sick.
The different actors in the story, the angry father
who turned his son out into the street, the thirsty
peasant for whom water gushed from the rock,
Brother Leo and Brother Elias, Chiara and her sisters,
had not so long ago been living men and women,
filled with the hopes and fears, the passions and
emotions of other human beings. Here then, ready to
the artist's hand, was a whole cycle of legend which
had not yet been stamped with the seal of tradition,
but was free to be shaped according to his own fancy
— a series full of picturesque incident and dramatic
situations, that lent itself admirably to artistic repre-
sentation. The opportunity was a splendid one, and—*
the right man was not long wanting. At this
fortunate hour the young Giotto came to Assisi, and
,a new day dawned for the art of Italy.

These frescoes of the life of St. Francis which the
young Florentine painted along the nave of the
Upper Church, supplied the type for all future repre-

i6 GIOTTO [1276.

sentations, and were repeated with little variation by
Tuscan artists during the next two centuries. They
reveal in a wonderful way the vigour of his youth-
ful genius, his strong dramatic sense and sympathy
with every form of human life. ^^ Each separate scene
is realised in the same vivid manner: the parting
from the angry father, at whose feet Francis lays
down his clothes, while the Bishop casts his cloak
over him, and the bystanders look on with evident
compassion on their faces ; the solemn moment in
which Francis and his poor companions kneel before,
the great Pope Innocent III. and receive his per-
mission to preach ; or the ordeal before the Soldan,
when the bare-footed friar boldly enters the flames,
while the magicians shrink back in terror at the
sight. The sudden death of the Lord of Celano,
while he is in the act of entertaining the Saint, is
represented in the most striking manner, and the
different phases of grief and horror are vividly painted
on the faces of the women and attendants who crowd
round the dying man, and in the gesture of Francis
himself as he rises from the hospitable board. But
finest of all is the touching scene in which the
funeral procession passes before the convent of S.
Damiano, and Chiara bends in an agony of love and
grief over the lifeless form of her beloved master,
while her companions kiss the stigmatized hand,
and the people gaze with reverent awe and sorrow
on the face of the dead Saint in his last sleep.""
Already in these youthful works we see traces of
i the shrewd sense of humour, the genial sympathy
with the lighter side of things, that was so marked
a characteristic of the great Florentine, It must have

1335] FRESCOES AT ASSISI 17

needed some courage to introduce on church walls
such incidents as the children throwing stones at
the rejected Saint, or the friar climbing into a
tree to enjoy a better view of the procession. Very
interesting are the details and accessories of the
separate subjects, irreparably ruined and re-painted
as they are. The figures stand out in solid relief
against the background, the gestures of the different
actors are natural and animated, and the draperies^
fall in single, easy folds. Ignorant as Giotto was
alike of the laws of anatomy and perspective, his
instinctive feeling for form and accurate observation
enabled him to give an appearance of reality both to
his figures and buildings ; while his genius for archi-
tecture is seen in the noble Gothic facades and towers
which he introduces in several pictures. The classical
forms which he combines with these Gothic motives
and the inlaid marble decorations and mosaics which
adorn porticoes and loggias are evidently borrowed
from the artists of the Cosmati school, and prove how
much he had learnt from the Roman painters whom
he met at Assisi. The general conception and design
of these frescoes is probably wholly owing to Giotto,
but it is plain that several hands were employed upon
the work, and the last three subjects, representing the
miracles wrought by St. Francis after death, were
evidently the work of some clever assistant, who
was employed by the Friars to complete the
series after the Florentine master had been called
away.

In 1298, Giotto was invited to Rome by Cardinal
Stefaneschi, the Pope's nephew, who had, no doubt,
heard of Cimabue's able scholar from Rusutti, or some

B

i8 GIOTTO [1276.

other Roman artist working at Assisi. Another
member of this prelate's family had already employed
Roman masters to execute the mosaics in S. Maria
Trastevere, and now at his bidding Giotto designed
the famous mosaic of the Navicella, or ship of the
Church, which hangs in the vestibule of St. Peter's.
Little trace of the original work now remains, but
the portrait of the Cardinal is introduced in the
corner ; and in the fisherman angling in the lake we
see a characteristic touch of Giotto's invention. Far
more worthy of study is the altar-piece which Giotto
painted for the Cardinal, and which is still preserved
in the Canons' Sacristy. This fine tempera-painting
has fortunately escaped restoration, and deserves the
high praise bestowed upon it by Vasari. In the
central panel Christ, robed in a richly embroidered
mantle, is seen seated on a throne, surrounded by
angels, and worshipped by the kneeling Cardinal, a
man of fifty years, clad in blue draperies and red cape.
On either side are the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St.
Paul, and on the reverse of the panels Stefaneschi
appears again, led by his patron, St. George, kneeling
at the feet of St. Peter enthroned between St. Andrew
and St. John, and attended by angels and glorified
saints. The colour is fine, the design rich and im-
posing, and the attitude and expression of the
Cardinal, clasping the bar of the throne, are full
of reverent devotion. The presence of the donor
in the courts of heaven was in itself an innovation
which no artist before Giotto had attempted, and the
human and individual character of the Cardinal's
head contrasts finely with the more conventional
types of the celestial beings. Giotto's original genius

I33S] WORKS IN ROME 19

is still more evident in the varied groups around the
cross upon which St. Peter hangs. Soldiers on foot
and horseback stand on either side, a young woman
and her child look on with deep compassion, and a
youth flinging his arms back in a manner plainly
borrowed from some antique bas-relief, recalls similar
types in Giotto's frescoes at Assisi and Padua.
Certain figures among the spectators in quaint
Mongolian costumes remind us that the Franciscan
friars, following their founder's example, had pene-
trated far into Central Asia on their missions, and
suggest that these strangers may have belonged to
the immense concourse of pilgrims who thronged
the streets of Rome in the year of Jubilee. A frenzy
of religious ardour had seized upon the whole of
Christendom, and marvellous are the tales told of the
multitudes who crowded the churches, and of the
piles of gold and silver that were raised up night and
day before the altars. Among the fragments of the
predella formerly attached to this altar-piece is a
Madonna, whose fine proportions and gracious tender-
ness show a distinct advance on Giotto's earlier
pictures, while the Babe in her arms is sucking his
thumb in the most natural manner.

Pope Boniface, we are told by Vasari, was deeply
impressed by Giotto's merits, and loaded him with
honours and rewards ; but the colossal Angel above
the organ, and the other frescoes which the artist
was employed to paint in the old basilica of St.
Peter's, all perished long ago, and the only other work
of his now remaining in Rome is the damaged fresco
of the Pope proclaiming the Jubilee, on a pillar of
the Lateran Church. This last painting proves that

•o GIOTTO [1276-

Giotto was in Rome during this famous year 1300,
when both his fellow-citizens Dante and the historian
Giovanni Villani were present in the Eternal City.
The divine poet, who places his great vision of
heaven and hell in that memorable year, was an
intimate friend of the painter — coetaneo e amico
grandissimo, says Vasari — and, after his return to
Florence, Giotto introduced Dante's portrait, robed
in red and holding his book in his hand, in an altar-
piece of Paradise which he painted for the chapel of
the Podesta palace. But since this chapel was burnt
down in 1332, and only rebuilt after Giotto's death,
the fresco of Dante on the walls of the present
building, which was discovered some years ago, must
have been copied by one of his followers from the
original painting.

It was probably on his journey back to Florence, or
on some other visit to Assisi during the next few years,
that Giotto painted his frescoes in the Lower Church.
Chief among these are the four great allegories on
the vaulted roof immediately above the high altar,
under which the ashes of the Saint were laid. Here,
in the Holy of Holies, the young Florentine master
was employed by the Franciscans of Assisi to
illustrate the meaning of the three monastic virtues,
Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty, whom, according
to the legend of the Fioretti^ the Saint met walking
on the road to Siena in the form of three fair maidens,
and whom he held up to his followers as the sum of
evangelical perfection. Nowhere is Giotto's creative
power more finely displayed than in these subjects,
where he has succeeded in animating the frigid con-
ceits of mediaeval allegory with human life and

13351 ALLEGORIES 2i

warmth. Nowhere is his colouring so lovely, so full
of actual charm and delicate gradation of tint. And
when, towards sunset, the evening light streams
through the narrow windows in the massive walls of
the apse and illumines the ancient church, it is almost
impossible to believe that these frescoes, glowing with
pure and radiant hues, were really painted six hundred
years ago. Most fortunately, these priceless works
have been preserved from damp by the floor of the
Upper Church above, and have never been ruined by
re-painting, as the frescoes of the Arena Chapel and
Santa Croce. ^ So that here we can form some idea of
Giotto's gifts as a colourist, and can understand the
amazement with which his contemporaries saw the
wonders wrought by his brush. ^ ^ ^ .

From the first, Giotto adopted a clear pale tone of ■ ^,
colouring, which forms a marked contrast to the dark ' /
and heavy tints in use among Byzantine artists, and
produces the effect of water-colour, while that of the
older painters more nearly resembles oils. The
technique which he used, both for tempera and fresco-
painting, and which remained in use among Florentine
artists for the next hundred-and-fifty years, was in
reality founded on the old Greek method which had
been practised during many centuries, although the
improvements which he introduced were sufficient to
justify the Giottesque artist Cennino Cennini in
saying, that Giotto changed painting from the Greek
to the Latin manner and brought in modern art.
Yet more striking were the innovations which he in-
troduced in his types, the almond-shaped eyes, long
noses and oval countenances with square, heavy jaws
which he substituted for the staring eyes and round

/^

22 GIOTTO [1276'

faces of Byzantine artists. The few and simple
lines of his draperies give a majestic effect to his
figures, and at the same time sufficiently indicate
the structure of the human form beneath ; so that
in spite of his ignorance of anatomy and model-
ling, the result is remarkably good. Above all, he
realises in a marvellous manner the full significance
jjof the story which he has to tell, and succeeds
in making its meaning clear to the spectator, not-
withstanding the limitations of his skill. The types
which he selects, and the grouping and gestures of
the actors in the scene, all carry out the central idea,
and help to complete the picture. These leading char-
acteristics are clearly seen in the allegories on the roof
of the Lower Church. They mark a distinct advance
on the earlier frescoes of the Upper Church, and stand
midway between the Stefaneschi altar-piece on the one
hand and the Arena frescoes at Padua. Obedience,
the primary monastic virtue, is here represented as a
winged figure sitting under a loggia between Pru-
dence and Humility, in the act of laying a yoke on the
neck of the friar who kneels before her. On one side
a centaur, the symbol of revolt and crime, recoils,
blinded by the mirror of Prudence, and on the other
side a devout layman and his wife are led by an angel
to contemplate the scene. On the roof of the loggia,
Francis himself is seen drawn up to Heaven by the
knotted cord of his habit, between kneeling angels
who wonder and adore. Chastity appears as a
maiden, praying within a fortress, guarded by Courage
and Purity and attended by angels, who offer her the
crown and palm of victory. In the foreground, Francis
receives a friar, nun and lay-brother, who as repre-

13351 ALLEGORIES 23

sentatives of the three Orders are climbing the hill,
with a gracious welcome. On the right, a novice is
baptised by angel's hands, and the penitent is de-
fended by warrior maidens ; while Repentance, armed
with a scourge, drives out carnal Desire, and Death
hurls the naked form of Passion into hell-flames. In
the third compartment we have the Marriage of
St. Francis with Holy Poverty, the bride of his choice,
that memorable scene which, originally described by
Bonaventura and the Franciscan poet Jacopone, has
been celebrated in a famous passage of Dante's
Paradiso, Giotto himself was no religious enthusiast,
and his shrewd worldly sense and genial humour led
him to look with little sympathy upon the voluntary
poverty which Francis held to be the crown of all
virtues. But in this beautiful fresco he has entered
fully into the spirit of glowing devotion which ani-
mated the Saint, and has left us a representation of
the subject worthy to rank with Dante's immortal lines.
The wedding takes place in the courts of Heaven,
Love and Hope are the bridesmaids, Christ Himself
the priest who speaks the nuptial blessing. The
bride's robe is torn and ragged, the boys throw stones
and the little dogs bark at her, but the thorns that
tear her bare feet, blossom into roses about her brow,
and the face of Francis beams with love and rapture,
as he places the ring upon her finger. In the fore-
ground we have practical illustrations of the parable.
On the left, an angel smiles approval on a young man
in the act of giving his cloak to a beggar ; on the right,
another richly-clad youth with a falcon on his wrist
turns scornfully away, and a miser clutches his bags
of gold more tightly between his hands. In the air

24 GIOTTO [1276.

above, angels are seen bearing the gifts of pious
donors — a mantle, a purse and a convent-church —
into heaven, where God the Father bends down
with outstretched hands to receive them. Finally, in
the fourth compartment we have a vision of St.
Francis, clad in the deacon's garb which he retained
in his humility to the end of his life, enthroned in
glory and attended by choirs of rejoicing angels.

These allegories are not the only works which
Giotto executed in the Lower Church of Assisi.
Ghiberti's statement, that the Florentine master
painted almost the whole of the Lower Church, is
confirmed by Petrus Rudolphus, who expressly
mentions the frescoes of the Childhood and Cruci-
fixion in the right transept as being by the hand of
Giotto. In their present ruined condition it is not
easy to distinguish between the work of the master
and that of his assistants ; but the whole series bears
the stamp of Giotto's invention, and in many cases
the composition foreshadows that of the Arena frescoes
at Padua. The scenes of the Childhood are full of
human charm and tenderness — the Babe laying his
little hand in blessing on the aged king's head, and
the young Mother wrapping the Child in the folds of
her mantle, as she rides the ass and Joseph leads the
way with pilgrim staff and bottle in his hand, are
touches which no one but Giotto would have intro-
duced. Even when, as in the Passion scenes, the old
types are more closely followed, a deeper note is
sounded. The Pieta resembles that of the Roman
master in the Upper Church, but is more dramatic
in character ; while in the Crucifixion, the passionate
grief of St. John, the overwhelming sorrow of the

I33S] ARENA CHAPEL 25

fainting Virgin, the wild despair of the angels who
hover in the air, mark a great advance on Cimabue's
crude realism, and St. Francis himself is introduced
among the saints who stand at the foot of the cross.

The next important series which Giotto painted
were the frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua. In
1303, Enrico Scrovegno, a noble citizen of Padua, son
of the wealthy usurer Rinaldo, whom Dante places
in his Inferno, spent part of his father's ill-gotten
fortune in building a chapel dedicated to the Annun-
ziata, on the site of a Roman amphitheatre. Two
years later Giotto was invited to decorate the interior
with frescoes. Benvenuto da Imola, writing in 1376,
tells us that when Dante visited Padua, in 1306,
he found his friend Giotto living there with his wife.
Madonna Ciutk, of the parish of Santa Reparata of
Florence, and his young family, and was honourably
entertained by the painter in his own house. Giotto,
adds the writer, was then still young — he must have
been exactly thirty years of age — and was engaged in
painting a chapel on the site of an ancient Arena.
Here the poet often watched him at work, with his
children, who were " as ill-favoured as himself," playing
around, and wondered how it was that the creations
of his brain were so much fairer than his own off-
spring. Giotto's small stature and insignificant appear-
ance seem to have been constantly the subject of
his friends' good-humoured jests, and Petrarch and
Boccaccio both speak of him as an instance of rare
genius being concealed under a plain and ungainly
exterior. "Two excellent painters I have known,"
writes Petrarch, " who were neither of them handsome
— Giotto of Florence, whose fame is supreme among

a6 GIOTTO [1276-

modern artists, and Simone Martini." But in Giotto's
case this unattractive appearance was redeemed by a
kindly and joyous nature, a keen sense of humour,
and unfailing cheerfulness, which made him the gayest
and most pleasant companion. And Giotto, on his
part, Vasari tells us, was deeply attached to the exiled
poet, and may well have availed himself of Dante's
ideas and suggestions in the great work upon which
he was engaged, especially in the allegorical figures of
Virtues and Vices, along the lower course of the
chapel walls.

" The whole of the Arena Chapel," says Ghiberti,
" was painted by the hand of Giotto." This statement
has never been disputed, and, with the exception of
the frescoes in the choir, which were added by his
followers in later years, the decoration of the interior
is entirely his work. The shape of the building, with
its long, low nave, lighted by six narrow windows,
was well adapted to fresco-painting, and even now, in
spite of the havoc worked by the restorer's hand, the
whole effect is singularly bright and decorative. The
vaulted roof is studded with gold stars on a blue
ground, and adorned with medallions of Christ and
his Mother, and of the Apostles and Prophets who
foretold his coming. A vision of Christ in glory
occupies the space above the arch leading into the
choir, and on the entrance wall is the Last Judgment,
with a portrait of the founder, Enrico Scrovegno,
holding a model of the chapel in his hands, welcomed
by three fair and gracious angels. There, too, in the
left-hand corner, among the hosts of the blessed, is a
profile portrait of the painter himself, standing between
two companions, in a red cap and vest Along the

133S] FRESCOES AT PADUA 27

side walls are three rows of frescoes, divided by an
ornamental framework, painted in imitation of marble
mosaics, representing thirty-eight scenes from the life
of the Virgin and of Christ. Below these are fourteen
allegorical figures, which illustrate the progress of
man on the way to heaven and hell, the seven Virtues
looking at Christ in glory, on the eastern arch, and
the seven Vices on- the opposite wall, turning their
faces towards the Inferno pictured on the western
wall.

The first twelve subjects are taken from the
apocryphal gospels known as the Protevangelion,
or Gospel of St. Mary. In most cases the traditional
composition is retained, but new actors are introduced
whose gestures and expression add fresh meaning and
reality to the scene, and the whole is brought before
us in a new and original manner. Giotto's familiarity
with shepherd-life is evident in the early scenes, in
the truth with which the weather-beaten faces and
rough clothes of the herdsmen are rendered, in
the rams butting each other with their horns, and the
faithful sheep-dog who hastens to greet his master,
when the childless Joachim returns, plunged in sad
thought, after the rejection of his offering. The
poor cottage home, where the Angel appears at
the window to Anna, is represented with the same
accuracy. We see the rude oak chest, the wooden
trestles, the striped coverlid and white hanging of
the bed, and the maid-servant busy at her spinning
in the passage outside. The same homely details
are reproduced in the Birth of the Virgin, where
the nurse washes the babe with the utmost care,
and the mother sits up in bed with outstretched

28 GIOTTO [1276^

arms to receive it, while the eager women around
are intent on their various tasks. The greeting of
Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate is full of
solemn tenderness ; and we have another charming
group in the aged high priest bending down to
welcome the shy little Virgin, who mounts the Temple
stairs, supported by her anxious mother. The
Marriage of the Virgin follows the traditional lines ;
but we see Giotto's invention in the action of the
disappointed suitor breaking his rod across his knee,
and the dove which has settled on Joseph's flowering
rod. This is followed by a subject of rare beauty,
and one which is seldom seen in Italian art — the
Return of the Virgin to her father's house, escorted
by musicians, and followed by a procession of
maidens. Giotto himself has not often succeeded
in rendering action as naturally as this of the
trumpeters and violinists sounding their instruments
under the Gothic balcony, decorated with green
boughs, and has seldom given us a form as classic
in its serene repose, or faces as fair in their youthful
loveliness as these of Mary and her seven virgins.

The Annunciation, which, as a type of the Incarna-
tion, that central truth of Christendom, occupies the
space on either side of the arch where Christ appears
in glory, is remarkable for the severe and stately
grace of the Angel and of her whom he calls
blessed among women. Both are kneeling, and
Gabriel's uplifted hand and dignified gesture con-
trast finely with the folded arms and attentive
humility with which Mary receives his salutation.
In the Nativity we are reminded of the divine nature
of the event by the flight of angels who circle in the

1335] FRESCOES AT PADUA ap

air above the stable roof. Three seraphs gaze heaven-
wards in adoration, while one stoops down to worship
the new-born King, and another bears the good tidings
of great joy to the shepherds, who hasten to the
chamber where the Virgin-Mother lies. At the same
time, the human aspect of the Incarnation is brought
out in the action of Mary as she turns round in bed
to lay the Babe down, and in the Child's efforts to
escape from the arms of Simeon and get back to his
mother, in the Temple scene. Nor has any later
artist surpassed the tender expressive sympathy on
the face of the aged Elizabeth, as she looks up into
Mary's eyes and sees in her the mother of her Lord.

Only two incidents from the ministry of Christ
find a place on these chapel walls, but these two —
the Marriage in Cana and the Raising of Lazarus —
are treated with especial attention, and are among
the finest of the whole series. The marriage-feast
takes place in a hall decorated with marble mosaic,
and a row of classic amphorce stand in front of the
table, where a fat man tosses off a cup of wine with
evident enjoyment, and the uplifted finger of the
Virgin bears witness to the power of a heavenly
presence at the festive board. The Raising of
Lazarus shows a marked improvement on Giotto's
former version of the subject at Assisi. The form
of Christ as he pronounces the solemn words,
"Lazarus, come forth," is singularly imposing, while
Mary and Martha kneel in lowly adoration, and the
bystanders gaze in awe and wonder at the dead man,
bound in grave-clothes, staggering to his feet. The
painter's gain in dramatic power, and his mastery of
the laws of composition, are still more evident in the

30 GIOTTO [1276-

closing scenes of Christ's life upon earth. All the
grief and sorrow of the world seem gathered up in
this great Pieta, where the Virgin bends over her
Son in a last embrace, and St. John throws back
his arms in despair, while angels hide their eyes
and rend the air with their wailing voices. In the
Resurrection Giotto has combined two subjects. On
one side we have the white-robed Angels seated on
the red porphyry tomb, with the soldiers, sunk in deep
slumber, at their feet. On the other, the risen Lord,
bearing the flag of victory in his hand, is in the act
of uttering the words " Noli me tangere " to the
Magdalen, who, wrapt in her crimson mantle, falls at
his feet, exclaiming, "i?«<5<^<?;2/.^" — Master. No artist
before Giotto had ever tried to represent this touching
incident, and no master of later times ever painted
so touching and beautiful a Magdalen as this one
with the yearning eyes and the passion of love and
rapture in her outstretched arms. And while the
trees behind the sepulchre are bare and withered,
here the fig and olive of the garden have burst into
leaf, and the little birds carol on the grassy slopes.
" The winter is past, the rain over and gone ; the
flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing
of birds is come." The Ascension is more formal in
arrangement ; two choirs of seraphs in the sky corres-
pond with two groups of disciples kneeling on
the ground, while between them are two white-robed
angels, pointing upwards as they repeat the heavenly
message. But Giotto's power of expression is nobly
seen in the upturned face of the Virgin-Mother, who,
strong in faith and love, follows her Son with straining
eyes; and there is a wonderful sense of movement

•335] FRESCOES AT PADUA 31

in the form of the Ascending Lord, borne upwards
by some unseen might into the heavens, which open
to receive him.

When we look back on the whole series, perhaps
what strikes us most is the simplicity and directness
with which the story is told. Not a single superfluous
actor is introduced. Each has his part to play in the
development of the situation. Each line is charged
with purpose, each gesture and attitude is signifi-
cant. Especially noteworthy is the action of the
hands, which are as expressive and characteristic
in Giotto's works as in those of another great
Florentine of a later age, Leonardo da Vinci. The
setting of the picture is of the simplest description.
The gold background of Byzantine masters has given
place to blue sky — now, alas ! coarsely repainted
— and both landscape and architecture are slight
and summary in treatment. The hill-country of
Bethlehem is indicated by a few green slopes and
trees, and the dramatic effect of the Baptism and
Entombment is heightened by the bare and desolate
rocks of the landscape. A house is represented by
a wooden roof resting on a couple of slender pillars,
and an open loggia with pointed arches. A ciborium,
with a flight of steps and marble screen, does duty
for the temple. Here and there, as in the Annuncia-
tion or Expulsion from the Temple, the architectural
details are more elaborate, and, as at Assisi, Gothic
and classical motives are frequently introduced in the
same building. The animals are, for the most part,
curiously ill-drawn and out of proportion, and were
probably the work of an assistant. Flat tints are
employed throughout, and there is little attempt at

32 GIOTTO tx276-

modelling ; but the broad masses of light and shade,
and the large sweep of the draperies, produce a
striking unity of effect, and all serve to heighten the
impression of monumental grandeur and repose which
these frescoes leave upon us.

Fortunately, the chiaroscuro frieze of Vices and
Virtues, beneath the historical subjects, have mostly
escaped restoration, and there at least it is still
possible to find some remains of Giotto's brushwork.
These allegorical figures are of singular charm and
interest. Whether the painter adopts the traditional
type or invents a new parable, the idea is carefully
thought out in every particular, and the details and
accessories all help to carry out his intention. Each
Virtue is contrasted with its opposite Vice. Charity,
wreathed in flowers, and holding a basket of fruit
in one hand, offers a burning torch to her Lord,
while she tramples money-bags under her feet.
Envy, on the opposite wall, grasps a purse in her
claws, and is bitten by a serpent issuing out of her own
mouth. Faith, a crowned and majestic form, clings
to the Cross with one hand, and holds the roll of the
Creed in the other, careless of the astrologer's books
lying on the floor. Unbelief, turning a deaf ear
to heavenly voices, is led by the idol to which she
is chained along the broad way of destruction.
Temperance is a beautiful figure robed in classic
draperies, with a bridle on her lips and her sword
bound to the scabbard; while Anger, an ugly old
hag, tears open her vest in impotent rage. Justice,
another royal form, sits throned under a Gothic
Canopy, holding a pair of scales which contain, the
one a statuette of an angel reaching out a crown of

1335] VIRTUES AND VICES 33

righteousness to the just, the other, an executioner in
the act of slaying the criminal, and the pediment of
her throne is adorned with a frieze of happy children
dancing and of huntsmen returning from the chase,
symbolic of the peace and prosperity which flourish
under her rule. Injustice is a hideous fiend seated in
a robber's stronghold, with a sword in one hand and
a grappling-hook in the other, to catch the innocent
traveller as he journeys on his way, while figures of
thieves and murderers are carved on the rocks at her
feet. Fortitude appears in the guise of an armed
woman, wearing a lion's skin knotted round her neck,
and bearing a massive shield embossed with a lion
and deeply indented with broken heads of javelins.
Inconstancy is a maiden wearing a veil, blown to and
fro by the wind, and vainly trying to support herself
against a rolling globe on a slippery marble floor.
Prudence is a grave matron with the double face of
Janus, sitting at a desk and holding a mirror in her
hand. Folly, wearing a cap of feathers and a bird's
tail fastened to his skirts, looks up with a grin
on his face at the club with which he is about
to strike the air at random. Last of all, Hope,
fairest and best of all the Virtues, stands on the
threshold of Paradise, and springs forward to reach a
crown held out by unseen hands, while Despair, the
blackest of crimes, is dragged by devils down to hell-
fires. Thus, in the same age, these two great
Florentines, Giotto and Dante, gave utterance to
their thoughts, the one in poetry, the other in
painting, and clothed their conceptions in the
favourite language of mediaeval times.

The fame which Giotto already enjoyed beyond the

C

34 GIOTTO [1276.

walls of Florence was greatly increased by these works.
Before he left Padua he was employed to decorate
the palace of Francesco di Carrara, and to paint
scenes from the life of St. Francis and St. Anthony in
the Chapter-house of the newly-built church of "II
Santo," which bade fair to rival S. Francesco of
Assisi in splendour and popularity. From Padua,
Vasari tells us, the Florentine master went on to the
neighbouring city of Verona, where he painted the
portrait of Dante's noble friend and protector. Can
Grande della Scala, as well as other works in the
Franciscan church, and then proceeded to Ferrara
and Ravenna at the invitation of the Este and
Polenta princes. His visit to the court of the
Malatesta at Rimini must also have been paid about
this time, since the Ferrarese chronicler Riccobaldi,
who died in 13 13, speaks of the works painted "by
that admirable Florentine master, Giotto, in the
churches of the Brothers Minor at Assisi, Rimini
and Padua." All of these works in the cities of
North Italy have perished, and it is to Florence that
we must turn for the third and last remaining cycle
of his frescoes. The great Franciscan church of
Santa Croce had been raised from Arnolfo's designs
in the last years of the thirteenth century, and
the proudest Florentine families hastened to build
chapels at their own expense, as a mark of their
devotion to the popular Saint. Four of these chapels
were decorated with frescoes by (jiotto's hand, but
were all whitewashed in 17 14, when Santa Croce
underwent a thorough restoration. The frescoes
of the lives of the Apostles, and the story of the
Virgin, which he painted in the Giugni and Spinelli

I33S3 IRESCOES IN SANTA CROCE 35

chapels, and which Vasari praises as miracles of art,
have been entirely destroyed ; but within the last fifty
years the whitewash has been successfully removed
from the walls of the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels, and
the finest of Giotto's works that remain to us have
been brought to light. Here, in a series painted
when his genius had reached its full development, we
are enabled to judge of his progress and realise the
great advance which his art had made since the early
days at Assisi. In dramatic power, in truth and
energy of action, in beauty of form and variety of
expression, these frescoes in Santa Croce surpass all
Giotto's other works. The figures are larger and
better drawn, the draperies are treated with greater
breadth and freedom, the architecture is more
elaborate and the perspective singularly correct
Where the restorer's hand has not entirely destroyed
its surface, the colouring is more varied and har-
monious, finer effects of light and shade and deeper
gradations of tint are visible. Above all, it is here
that Giotto's unrivalled powers as a great epic painter
are revealed, and that we realise his intimate
knowledge of human nature, and his profound
sympathy with every form of life.

The Peruzzi chapel contains three scenes from the
life of St. John the Baptist. In the first, the aged
Zacharias stands on the temple steps swinging a
censer in his hand, and starts back in surprise at the
sight of the angel who has suddenly appeared under
the arch over the altar. In the background, Elizabeth
and a younger companion at her side behold the
apparition with wondering eyes, and two lute players
and a piper blowing with all his might are also

36 GIOTTO [1276-

present. In the next composition we have the Birth
of the Baptist. Elizabeth, whose reclining attitude
is admirably given, lies on the bed, attended by her
maidens, and in the next room Zacharias is seated
with crossed legs, writing the child's name upon the
tablet on his knees, and gazing at the laughing babe
held up before him by the women, who look eagerly at
the word which he has written. In the third scene,
Herod and his guests are seated at table under a
stately portico adorned with antique statues, watching
Salome, who with a lyre in her hand has been dancing
before them to the strains of violin music. But
suddenly she pauses in her dance, and the women
who have been watching her steps turn away in
horror at the sight of the Baptist's head which a
soldier, wearing a Roman helmet, is in the act of
presenting to Herod. Through an open doot
Salome appears again, kneeling before her mother
with the charger, and in the distance we see the
barred window of the tower where the Baptist has
been imprisoned. The central picture, with its classic
architecture and ornamental details, and the graceful
figures of Salome and the youth in his striped tunic
playing the violin, is full of charm.

On the opposite wall we have three subjects from
the life of St. John the Evangelist. First of all, the
aged Saint is seen slumbering on the rock of Patmos,
while the vision of the Son of Man appears in the
clouds, attended by an angel bearing a sickle, and
the woman with the mystic Child in the cradle.
This fresco is too badly damaged to give any idea
of Giotto's powers, but happily a considerable portion
of the two others have escaped restoration, and are

1335] SANTA CROCE FRESCOES 37

among the finest of the series. One is the Raising
of Drusiana, who is here seen sitting up on the bier
at the bidding of the Evangelist — a noble figure with
uplifted arm — before the mourners. Both the heads
of Drusiana and of St. John are admirably modelled,
the towers and walls in the background are in ex-
cellent perspective, and there for the first time we see
a really successful attempt at chiaroscuro. The
other is the Ascension of St. John, who is represented
soaring up into the heavens, where Christ bends down
to welcome him, while his disciples stand round the
empty grave, lost in wonder and perplexity.

The frescoes of the second chapel were ordered by
a famous Florentine captain, Ridolfo de' Bardi, whose
son had joined the Franciscan Order, and represent six
different scenes from the life of Francis. In these
subjects — which were to become the model for Tuscan
and Umbrian artists during the next two centuries —
Giotto refines and simplifies the composition of his
earlier works at Assisi, and treats his theme in a
grander and more heroic manner. The Saint's
encounter with his angry father is more dramatically
represented, Francis himself is a youthful and attrac-
tive figure, and in the background a stately loggia
rises against the blue sky. After this we have the
Confirmation of the Rule, by Pope Innocent III., and
the Apparition of the Saint in a church at Aries,
where St. Anthony is preaching on the Passion. In
the last fresco two incidents are combined : the
Apparition of Francis at the moment of his death to
Bishop Guido at Monte Gargano, and to a dying
friar in his cell at Assisi. But the most striking com-
positions are those of Francis before the Soldan and

38 GIOTTO [1276-

the Death of the Saint. The imposing form of the
Soldan on his throne, under a portico adorned with
mosaics and statues, the white turbans and flowing
robes of the Moorish priests, the contrast between
the ecstatic joy on the face of Francis, as he enters the
flames, and the horror and terror, not only of the Magi,
but of the poor friar who cowers behind, all help to
make up a picturesque and animated scene. We re-
member how finely Giotto represented the Saint's
death in his early days at Assisi. Here the touching
incident is still more simply brought before us.
There is no crowd of curious spectators — even
Chiara and her nuns are absent. All we have is the
great Saint lying dead on his funeral bier, surrounded
by weeping friars, who bend over their beloved master
and cover his hands and feet with kisses. At the
head of the bier a priest reads the funeral rite ; three
brothers stand at the foot bearing a cross and banner,
and the incredulous Girolamo puts his finger into the
stigmatised side, while his companions gaze on the
sacred wounds with varying expressions of awe and
wonder, and one, the smallest and humblest of the
group, suddenly lifts his eyes and sees the soul of
Francis borne on angel-wings to Heaven. Even the
hard outlines and coarse handling of the restorer's
brush cannot destroy the beauty and pathos of this
scene, which still remains without a rival in Florentine
art. In later ages more accomplished artists often
repeated this composition — Benedetto da Majano
carved the subject on the pulpit of Santa Croce, and
Ghirlandajo painted it on the walls of the Trinita — but
none ever attained to the simple dignity and pathetic
beauty of Giotto's design.

I33S] CHILDREN OF GIOTTO 39

The exact date of these frescoes remains uncertain,
but they were probably painted soon after 1320.
Recent research has as yet thrown little light upon
the chronology of Giotto's life, and all we can discover
is an occasional notice of the works which he executed,
or of the property which he owned in Florence.
Vasari's statement, that he succeeded to Cimabue's
house and shop in the Via del Cocomero, to the north
of the Duomo, is borne out by the will of the Floren-
tine citizen Rinuccio, who, dying in 13 12, describes the
excellent painter Giotto di Bondone as a parishioner
of Santa Maria Novella, and bequeathes a sum of " five
pounds of small florins " to keep a lamp burning night
and day before the crucifix painted by the said
master, in the Dominican church. Of Giotto's eight
children, the eldest, Francesco, became a painter, and
received commissions as early as 13 19. When his
father was absent from Florence he managed the
small property which Giotto had inherited at his old
home of Vespignano in Val Mugello, and which he
increased by purchases of land and houses. The
painter's family seem to have lived chiefly at this
country home, where his daughters Chiara and Lucia
married burghers of Vespignano, and one son, a
second Francesco, became a parish priest. The eldest
sister Caterina became the wife of an artist, Ricco di
Lapo, and the youngest, Beatrice, belonged to the
Third Order of Dominic, and married soon after her
father's death. Giotto himself was fond of his country
home, and contemporary writers give us pleasant
glimpses of the great master's excursions to Val
Mugello. Boccaccio tells us how one day, as he and
the learned advocate Messer Forese, who, like himself,

40 GIOTTO [1276-

was short and insignificant in appearance, were riding
out to Vespignano, they were caught in a shower of
rain, and forced to borrow cloaks and hats from the
peasants. " Well, Giotto," said the lav/yer, as thej
trotted back to Florence, clad in these old clothes
and bespattered with mud from head to foot, " if a
stranger were to meet you now, would he ever
suppose that you were the first painter in Florence ? "
" Certainly he would," was Giotto's prompt reply, " if
beholding your worship he could imagine for a
moment that you had learnt your A. B. C." And the
novelist Sacchetti relates how the great master rode
out to San Gallo one Sunday afternoon with a party
of friends, after the manner of Florentine citizens, more
for pleasure than devotion, and how they fell in with a
herd of swine, one of whom ran between Giotto's legs
and threw him down. " After all, the pigs are quite
right," said the painter, as he scrambled to his feet
and shook the dust off his clothes, " when I think how
many thousands of crowns I have earned with their
bristles, without ever giving them even a bowl ot
soup ! " The same writer records how on another
of these joyous Sunday expeditions Giotto stopped
with his friends at the church of the Servi friars, to
study the paintings on the walls. One of his com-
panions remarked that St. Joseph was always repre-
sented as grave and melancholy, upon which Giotto
replied, " Can you wonder, considering his relation-
ship to the Child ? " a repartee which seems to have
afforded the company infinite amusement. These
tales sound trivial in themselves, but are of interest
as showing the deep impression left upon the great
painter's contemporaries, not only by his talents, but

1335] SONG ON VOLUNTARY POVERTY 41

by his strong personality ; while the ready wit and
practical turn of mind which they reveal are exactly
what the study of his works would lead us to expect.
A more serious instance of his power of satire is to be
found in the song against Voluntary Poverty bearing
his name, which Rumohr discovered in the Laurentian
library. In these verses Giotto not only denounces
the vice and hypocrisy often working beneath the
cloak of monastic perfection, but honestly expresses
his own aversion to poverty as a thing miscalled a
virtue, and enumerates all the evils of the grace which
he was so often called to glorify in his paintings.
He concludes by declaring that voluntary poverty is
nowhere enjoined by our Lord, whose words apply to
his own holy life, and who became poor that we might
be saved from the curse of avarice, not that we may
fall into idle unworthy ways of living. The whole
canzone is of great interest, coming as it does from the
pen of the chosen painter of the Franciscan Order,
and showing the independence of Giotto's character.

The extraordinary industry of the man is shown by
the long list of panel pictures as well as wall-paintings
which are mentioned by early writers. These have
fared even worse than Giotto's frescoes. The picture
of the Commune crowned and throned and attended
by all the virtues, in the great hall of the Podesti,
which Vasari describes as of very beautiful and in-
genious invention, the small tempera painting of the
Death of the Virgin, on which Michael Angelo loved
to gaze, in the church of Ognissanti, the Madonna
which was sent to Petrarch at Avignon, and which he
left as his most precious possession to his noble friend
Francesco di Carrara, have all perished. One panel,

4a GIOTTO [1276-

however, described by Vasari, is still in existence : the
altar-piece of St. Francis receiving the Stigmata on the
rocky heights of La Vernia, together with the three
subjects of the predella — Pope Innocent's Dream of
Francis supporting the falling pillars of the Church,
the Confirmation of the Rule, and Francis preach-
ing to the swallows. This interesting picture was
originally painted for a church in Pisa, and now hangs
in the Louvre. It bears the inscription, Opus Jocti
Fiorentini^ a signature which confirms Boccaccio's
statement that Giotto always refused to bear the name
of M agister. It is worthy of notice that in legal
documents regarding the purchase of lands at Ves-
pignano, which are still in existence, the master always
employs the signature of Giottus pictor^ while the
Baroncelli altar-piece and other spurious works bear
the forged inscription — Opus Magistri JoctL

In 1330, Giotto was invited to Naples by King
Robert, whose son Charles, Duke of Calabria, held
the post of Captain of the people of Florence during
two years, and who had employed Giotto to paint
his portrait. This monarch, the friend and patron
of Boccaccio and Petrarch, received Giotto with the
highest honour, and issued a decree, in the following
January, granting this chosen and faithful servant
all the privileges enjoyed by members of the royal
household. Ghiberti tells us that Giotto painted the
hall of King Robert's palace, and Petrarch alludes
in one of his epistles to the frescoes with which he
adorned the royal Chapel of the Castello dell' Uovo,
" Do not fail," he writes, " to visit the royal Chapel
where my contemporary, Giotto, the greatest painter
of his age, has left such splendid monuments of his

1335] GIOTTO AT NAPLES 43

pencil and genius." But all these works have been
destroyed, and another series of frescoes on the
Revelation of St. John, painted, Vasari tells us, col
pensiero di Dante^ which he executed in the newly-
built Franciscan church of Santa Chiara, were white-
washed in the last century, by order of a Spanish
governor, who complained that they made the church
too dark ! King Robert appreciated the painter's
company as much as his talent, and enjoyed the
frankness of his speech and his ready jest. " Well,
Giotto," he said, as he watched the artist at work
one summer day, " if I were you, I would leave off
painting while the weather is so hot." " So would I,
were I King Robert," was Giotto's prompt reply.
Another time the King asked him to introduce a
symbol of his kingdom in a hall containing portraits
of illustrious men, upon which Giotto without a word,
painted a donkey wearing a saddle, embroidered with
the royal crown and sceptre, pawing and sniffing at
another saddle lying on the ground, bearing the same
device. "Such are your subjects," explained the
artist, with a sly allusion to the fickle temper of the
Neapolitans. " Every day they seek a new master."
In 1333, Giotto was still in Naples, and King Robert,
it is said, promised to make him the first man in the
realm, if he would remain at his court ; but early in
the following year he was summoned back to
Florence by the Signory, and, on the 12th of April
1334, was appointed Chief Architect of the State
and Master of the Cathedral Works. Since the death
of Arnolfo, in 13 10, the progress of the Duomo had
languished, but now the Magistrates declared their
intention of erecting a bell-tower which, in height

44 GIOTTO [1276-

and beauty, should surpass all that the Greeks and
Romans had accomplished in the days of their
greatest pride. " For this purpose," the decree
runs, " we have chosen Giotto di Bondone, painter,
our great and dear master, since neither in the city
nor in the whole world is there any other to be found
as well fitted for this and similar tasks." Giotto lost
no time in preparing designs for the beautiful Cam-
panile which bears his name, and on the 8th of July
the foundations of the new Tower were laid with
great solemnity. Villani describes the imposing
processions that were held, and the immense multi-
tudes which attended the ceremony, and adds that
the Superintendent of Works was Maestro Giotto,
"our own citizen, the most sovereign master of
painting in his time, and the one who drew figures,
and represented action in the most life-like manner."
Giotto received a salary of 100 golden florins from the
State " for his excellence and goodness," and was
strictly enjoined not to leave Florence again without
the permission of the Signory. The contemporary
chronicler Pucci describes the ceremony in verse,
and adds that Giotto not only designed the Cam-
panile, but also executed the first tier of bas-
reliefs, a statement confirmed by Ghiberti, who says
that Giotto, being a skilled sculptor, himself designed
and carved the first story of reliefs on his own Tower.
There seems to be little doubt that these noble
sculptures, forming as they do a grand poem of
the life of humanity and the progress of civiliza-
tion, were originally designed by Giotto, but probably
executed by his assistant, Andrea Pisano, to whom the
building of the Campanile was entrusted after the

1335] DEATH OF GIOTTO 45

death of its founder. For, in 1335, Giotto again left
Florence, by order of the Signory, at the urgent
request of their ally, Azzo Visconti, Lord of Milan.
Here, in the old ducal palace on the Piazza of the
Duomo, Giotto painted a series of frescoes, of which
no trace remains, and then hurried back to Florence
to resume his work on the Campanile. Another
invitation reached him from Pope Benedict XH.,
who had heard of his fame from Petrarch, and
offered him a large salary if he would take up his
residence at the papal court at Avignon. But it
was too late, and, as an old chronicler writes, " heaven
willed that the royal city of Milan should gather the
last fruits of this noble plant." Soon after his return
Giotto fell suddenly ill, and died on the 8th of
January 1337. He was buried with great honour
in the Cathedral, and, by the devout care of his
daughter Beatrice, masses were said for the repose
of his soul in the parish church of his old home
at Vespignano.

More than a hundred years later, when Florence
had reached the height of splendour and prosperity
under the rule of the Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent
placed a marble bust on Giotto's tomb, and employed
Angelo Poliziano to compose a Latin epitaph which
gave proud utterance to the veneration in which the
great master was held alike by his contemporaries
and by posterity. "Lo, I am he by whom dead
Painting was restored to life, to whose right hand all
was possible, by whom Art became one with Nature.
No one ever painted more or better. Do you wonder
at yon fair Tower which holds the sacred bells?
Know that it was I who bade her first rise towards

46 GIOTTO [1276-1335

the stars. For I am Giotto — what need is there to
tell of my work ? Long as verse lives, my name shall
endure ! "

Chief Works —

Florence. — Accademia delle belle Arti: 103. Madonna
and Child with Angels.
„ Santa Croce^ Peruzzi Chapel: Frescoes —

Lives of St. John the Baptist and St.
John the Evangelist. Bardi Chapel:
Frescoes — Life of St. Francis.
Assm. — Upper Church : Frescoes — Life of St. Francis.
„ Lower Church : Allegories of Obedience,
Charity, Poverty and Glory of St. Francis.
„ Lower Churchy R. Transept : Frescoes —
Lives of Christ and the Virgin.
Bologna. — Accademia delle belle Arti: loi. Saints

and Angels.
Padua. — Arena Chapel : Frescoes — Lives of Christ
and the Virgin, Last Judgment, Vices
and Virtues.
Rome, — St. Peter' s Sacristy : Stefaneschi Altar-piece.
St. John Lateran : Fresco — Boniface VIII.
Proclaiming the Jubilee, 1300.
Boston^ U.S.A. — Mrs Gardner: Presentation in

Temple.
Munich, — Pinacothek : 979 - 983. Small Panels.
Madonna, Passion and Crucifixion, etc.
Paris. — Louvre: 13 12. St. Francis receiving the
Stigmata.

^ These frescoes are now ascribed by Mr. Berenson, Professor Venturi,
and other authorities to an assistant of Giotto, and not to the master
himself. — ("The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance," by B. Berenson,
p. 142. Third Edition, 1909.)

Ill

THE GIOTTESCHI

TADDEO GADDI GIOVANNI DA MILANO GIOTTINO

AGNOLO GADDI CENNINO CENNINI

ANDREA ORCAGNA ANDREA DA FIRENZE

ANTONIO VENEZIANO SPINELLO ARETINO —

LORENZO MONACO.

I33O-I43O

The change which Giotto had wrought in art had
been so great, the advance on all who had gone before
him was so marvellous, that well-nigh two centuries
were needed to work out the problems which he had
solved as it were by instinct. In his hands Italian art
became a genuine expression of national character, and
so fully did he give utterance to the thoughts of his
age, that for many years his followers had only to
repeat his types or apply his principles to other
subjects in order to find general acceptance. The
result of Giotto's predominance in Trecento art is, that
the personalities of different artists are all of them
more or less absorbed in this one master, and that it
becomes difficult to single out the characteristics of
his individual followers. Instead of going straight to
nature, as Giotto had done, they were content to copy
his figures and imitate his compositions, until they too

47

4S THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-

sank into monotony and formality, and art seemed
once more in danger of becoming purely conventional.
Yet these Giottesque painters interest us by their
earnestness and sincerity, their simple and naive feeling.
They are, as a rule, excellent illustrators, who can tell
a story gracefully and add pleasing details to the
picture, if they lack the convincing power and
dramatic sense of their great master, and never
succeed in producing the same vivid and life-like
effect.

Political conditions may have had their share in
the general stagnation from which art and letters
both suffered in the fourteenth century. The great
schemes of Pope Innocent III. for the Church's re-
generation, the dream of brotherhood and religious
equality which St. Francis had held up to his country-
men, had ended in failure and disappointment. Civil
troubles in Rome led to the exile of the popes to
Avignon, and the Babylonian Captivity, as this period
of banishment was termed, did not come to an end
until 1 377. Florence was torn in twain by the perpetual
warfare of contending factions, the wars with Pisa and
the revolt of the Ciompi. In 1345, great misery was
entailed on countless families by the colossal failure of
the Peruzzi and Bardi houses, which was partly caused
by our king Edward the Third's repudiation of a
debt of more than a million of florins, advanced by
these merchants for the expenses of his French wars.
This calamity was followed by the famine of 1 347 and
the terrible plague of 1348, which carried off as many
as 600 victims a day, and was reckoned to have de-
stroyed three-fourths of the whole population. In
these circumstances it is wonderful that painting should

1430] TADDEO GADDI 49

have been as actively practised as it was in Florence
during this period instead of dying out altogether.

As before, the chief patrons of art were the
Mendicant Orders, and the centres of painting were
the Franciscan church of Santa Croce and the
Dominican foundation of Santa Maria Novella.
The decoration of Santa Croce, begun by Giotto,
was carried on by his favourite scholar and godson,
Taddeo Gaddi, the son of Gaddo Gaddi, a dis-
tinguished mosaic- worker who was employed in the
Baptistery and Church of San Miniato, and lived on
friendly terms with his great contemporary. Born
about 1300, Taddeo spent twenty-four years in
Giotto's shop, and assisted his master in most of his
later works. A careful and industrious artist, Taddeo
followed Giotto's methods very closely, imitating his
types and exaggerating his peculiarities. His best
works, the frescoes of the Virgin's Life, in the Baron-
celli Chapel of Santa Croce, were begun during Giotto's
absence at Naples, and finished by 1338. Most of the
subjects are taken from the Arena Chapel, and fre-
quently we find that whole figures are borrowed from
Giotto's compositions. The narrow eyes, long noses and
faces are so much exaggerated as to become positively
ugly ; the drapery hangs in smaller and deeper folds ;
there is more variety in the costumes, and greater
elaboration in the architecture and other accessories.
But the want of structural form is painfully apparent
in the figures, and the faces lack character and ex-
pression. In the Presentation of the Virgin, for
instance, Taddeo places the high priest in a tall, many-
arched loggia, elaborately decorated with reliefs and
windows, but sadly out of perspective, and introduces

D

5<5 THE GIOTTESCHI ti330-

a number of spectators, amongst others a group of
children, evidently copied from the boys who threw
stones in the Allegory of Poverty at Assisi. The
little Virgin is represented standing by herself on the
steps of the Temple and turning round with out-
stretched arm, as if in the act of solemnly declaring
her intentions to her parents. The unity of the
picture is thus destroyed, and the simple and im-
pressive effect of Giotto's composition is entirely lost.
The Marriage and Return of the Virgin to her home
are combined in one and the same picture, but in
spite of the picturesque head-dresses introduced and
the variety of foliage in the trees of the background,
the composition is crowded and ineffective, and far
inferior to Giotto's rendering. In the more homely
scenes, however, Taddeo succeeds better, and the
birth of the Virgin is perhaps the most natural and
graceful subject of the whole series. The large
Coronation of the Virgin attended by angels playing
musical instruments, which originally hung in the
Baroncelli Chapel and was long ascribed to Giotto, is
also, there can be little doubt, Taddeo's work. To
him, again, we may ascribe the panels of the presses
which held the altar-plate in the sacristy of Santa
Croce, decorated with scenes from the life of St.
Francis, chiefly imitated from Giotto's frescoes in the
Upper Church at Assisi. Another large altar-piece of
the Madonna and Child, attended by angels swinging
censers and offering flowers, is in the gallery at Siena,
and bears Taddeo's signature as well as the date 1355.
After Giotto's death Taddeo became the foremost
painter in Florence, and decorated numerous churches
and cloisters with frescoes, which have all perished.

1430] GIOVANNI DA MILANO 51

A modest and simple man, he retained the deepest
veneration for his master's memory to the end, and is
said to have signed some of his works with the inscrip-
tion, " Taddeo, a disciple of Giotto, the good master."
No one lamented the decline of art after Giotto's death
more deeply than this loyal scholar, and in his old age
he is reported to have said to Andrea Orcagna : " Art
left the world with Giotto, and is sinking every day to
a lower level" On the 29th of August 1366, Taddeo
was summoned, together with the chief painters and
goldsmiths of the city, to hold a consultation on the
Duomo works, and seems to have died before the end
of the year. On his death-bed he commended his
sons Agnolo and Giovanni to Jacopo da Casentino for
their moral training, and to Giovanni da Milano for
their artistic education. In this he showed his percep-
tion. Jacopo was a native of the district of Casentino,
who joined Taddeo when he was painting in the
convent-church of La Vernia, and became one of his
most devoted followers. He was an inferior artist, as
we may learn from those of his frescoes which are still
to be seen at Arezzo, but a man of considerable
ability, who restored the ancient Roman aqueduct in
that town, and supplied its inhabitants with water.
But his chief title to fame lies in the fact that, in
1349, he founded the Guild of Florentine painters
which bore the name of the Company of St. Luke.

Giovanni da Milano was a far better artist. Born at
Caversaio, a village near Como, he early became one of
Taddeo's assistants, and worked with him at Arezzo.
In 1363, he matriculated in the Painters' Guild,
and three years later was admitted to the privileges
of a citizen of Florence. At that time he was living

52 THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-

with his family in the parish of S. Pietro Maggiore,
and had lately finished the Pieta, now in the
Accademia, signed with his name. " I, John of Milan,
painted this picture in 1365." Early in the same
year he accepted an order from the Prior of Santa
Croce to decorate the Rinuccini Chapel with frescoes
of the life of the Virgin and S. Mary Magdalene.
In these eight subjects the traditional art of the
Gaddi is enriched by the presence of fresh elements.
A new type of features is introduced, the proportions
of head and face are more correct, there is a certain
sweetness and grace, which seems to have been the
natural inheritance of Lombard artists, and a plentiful
infusion of homely incidents partaking of the nature of
genre. The busy movements and elaborately trimmed
gowns of the maids who wash and dress the infant
Virgin are as prominent as the dinner which the
Apostles are in the act of eating at the Pharisee's
table, or the cook and kitchen-fire which engross
Martha's attention. Giovanni da Milano may possibly
have been the painter of the scenes from the Virgin's
life in the cloisters of S. Maria Novella, which Mr
Ruskin has eloquently described in his " Mornings in
Florence," and which are, no doubt, works by a
Giottesque artist, but hardly, as he supposes, by the
hand of Giotto himself. This Lombard master after-
wards went to Rome, where he was employed in the
Lateran from 1367 to 1370, and, according to Vasari,
visited Assisi, and painted an important altar-piece in
the Upper Church on his journey back to Milan.

Another follower of Giotto, who was also said to
have worked in the Lateran, and who certainly
painted in Santa Croce during Taddeo Gaddi*s

-430] GIOTTINO'S WORKS S3

lifetime, was a certain Tommaso di Banco, whom
Vasari calls by his surname of Giottino, which he
acquired, we are told, because in him the spirit and
personality of Giotto seemed to live again. It seems
doubtful whether the biographer has not confused
two different painters in his account, but the man
whom he calls Giottino, and whom Ghiberti more
correctly describes as Maso di Banco, was a very
interesting and attractive artist, who produced several
striking works. Giottino, to call him by the commonly-
accepted name, was born in 1324, matriculated in the
Painters' Guild in 1343, and was admitted to the
Company of St. Luke in 1350. After this we hear
no more of him, and Vasari tells us that he died of
consumption at the early age of thirty, worn out
by ceaseless labour and devotion to his art. During
his short life Giottino attained a high degree of fame,
which in his eyes was of more value than any riches,
to which he seems to have been singularly indifferent.
Villani speaks of him as a charming man, nomo gen-
tilissimo, and Ghiberti describes him as an illustrious
artist, pittore nobilissimo. Both agree with Vasari
that he was the author of the frescoes in the Chapel of
S. Silvestro in Santa Croce. These paintings, which
represent the miracles wrought by Bishop Sylvester,
as told in the Golden Legend, are remarkable not
only for the natural action and expression of the
figures introduced, but for the skill and charm of the
composition. The Giottesque practice of combining
separate incidents in a single picture has been seldom
adopted with such excellent effect as in the last
fresco, where the Saint is represented closing the
jaws of a dragon, and bringing back two dead Magi

54 THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-

to life, in the presence of the Emperor Constantino
and his court. The perspective and chiaroscuro are
little inferior to Giotto's own, and the hilly landscape
with its classical buildings and long line of ruined
arches form a picturesque background to the whole
composition. The gentle melancholy and seriousness
of the young master's nature, to which Vasari alludes,
is more apparent in the beautiful Pieta which he
painted for the church of S. Romeo, now in the
corridor of the Uffizi. The general lines of the com-
position recall Giotto's Pietas at Padua and Assisi,
but the grief of the mourners is less passionate and
more restrained. The holy Mother gazes tenderly
at her Son's face, and St. John, standing behind with
clasped hands, looks down upon them with deep
distress and affection, while two Florentine ladies,
the donors of the picture, kneel with folded arms
at the foot of the cross, and St. Benedict and St.
Zenobius, robed in full pontificals, lay their hands
upon them in blessing. Cavalcaselle ascribes two
paintings of the Nativity and Crucifixion in the crypt
of the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella to this
artist, as well as the fragments of an allegorical fresco,
with a view of the Palazzo Vecchio, representing the
Expulsion of Walter of Brienne, Duke of Athens,
from Florence, which Giottino painted in the Palace
of the Podesta, according to Vasari and Villani,
when he was only twenty, and which were still to
be seen a few years ago, in the Via del Diluvio.
On his return from Rome, Giottino visited Assisi,
but no trace of his work now remains in the great
Franciscan basilica. The charming frescoes on the
life of St Nicholas in the Chapel of the Sacrament,

1430] AGNOLO GADDI'S FRESCOES 55

in the Lower Church, formerly ascribed to this master^
belong to an earlier period, between 1300 and 13 10,
and were probably, as Mr. Berenson suggests, painted
by the unknown assistant who completed Giotto's
series in the Upper Church. Giottino's work at
Assisi was interrupted by illness, brought on, we
are told, by neglect of his health and excessive
devotion to his art, and he came back to Florence,
where he died soon afterwards, to the grief of his
contemporaries, who felt that in him they had lost a
truly great master. He was buried by his parents
outside the walls of Santa Maria Novella, and Latin
epitaphs lamenting his short life and rare promise
were written in his honour.

A third artist who painted in Santa Croce during
the latter half of the fourteenth century, was Agnolo
Gaddi, the son of Taddeo. His first work of import-
ance, the frescoes on the legend of the True Cross,
which he painted for the Alberti family in the choir of
Santa Croce, show a close following of the Giottesque
tradition, modified by Sienese influences, and the
example of Giovanni da Milano. The type of face
with the long nose and heavy chin is still the same
as in Taddeo's works, but there is more charm of
feature and colouring, and some of the heads, such
as St. Helena, with her braided hair and quaint coif,
are distinctly attrr.tive. The story of the Finding of
the True Cross by the Empress, and of the miracles
worked by the sacred relic, as recorded in the Golden
Legend, is told with a variety of picturesque incident ;
and the third fresco, in which the vision appears to
Heraclius in his sleep, and he is seen on horseback
charging the hosts of Chosroes, evidently supplied

56 THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-

Piero dei Franceschi with the idea of his famous series
at Arezzo. The portrait of the artist, with a short
beard and red hood, may still be distinguished among
the crowd assembled to witness the Emperor's entry
into Jerusalem. Another series of frescoes which
Agnolo painted later in life, in the Chapel of the
Holy Girdle at Prato, show a marked improvement
in composition and vivacity. These represent the
early history of the Virgin, and tell the legend of
the Girdle which dropped at her Assumption, and was
caught by the doubting Thomas. In the eleventh
century it was discovered in Palestine by Michele
Dagomari, a citizen of Prato, who wedded the daughter
of its owner, and brought back the precious relic
with his bride to his Tuscan home. Unfortunately
the later scenes, which represent the marriage of
Michele, his return to Prato, and the procession
bearing the Holy Girdle to the Duomo, are
irreparably ruined. These works must have been
the last which Agnolo ever executed. The Chapel
was consecrated, and the Girdle solemnly deposited
within its walls in 1395. A year later, on the i6th
of October 1396, the painter himself died and was
buried in Santa Croce. His sons gave up painting
for trade, and opened a house in Venice, where they
became wealthy merchants. One of his scholars was
Cennino Cennini, whose name is well known, not
because of his pictures, which have perished, but
for the sake of the " Treatise on Painting," which he
wrote in the early years of the fifteenth century,
Cennino was born at Colle di Val d'Elsa, near
Florence, about 1370, and was apprenticed to Agnolo
Gaddi during twelve years After his master's deatfc

1430] CENNINO'S TRATTATO 57

he went to Padua, where he entered the service of
Francesco di Carrara, married a lady of good position,
and spent the rest of his life. Here he " made and
composed the Book of the Art, in the reverence of
God and of the Virgin Mary, of St. Eustachius (his
own patron), of St. Francis and St. John the Baptist
and St. Anthony of Padua, in the reverence of
Giotto, Taddeo and Agnolo, and for the utility and
good and advantage of those who would attain
perfection in the art." It was formerly supposed
that Cennino died in the debtors' prison called the
Stinchi in Florence, because the MS. of his book
in the Laurentian Library ends with the words :
" On the 31st of July 1437, in the Stinchi prison;"
but this was probably added by the copyist who
beguiled his prison hours by transcribing the treatise^
and since this inscription is not found in the Riccar-
diani MS., there is no reason to conclude that Cennino's
prosperous career had so dismal an end.

As a practical treatise on Trecento painting, deal-
ing minutely with fresco and tempera alike, and
describing the technique of Giotto and his im-
mediate followers, Cennino's book is of the utmost
value, while at the same time it gives us some
insight into the habits and customs of Florentine
painters at this period. He insists on the necessity
of constantly referring to Nature, and advises every
student to draw something from Nature every day.
But he lays down certain rules to be observed
in the proportion of the human figure and face,
which is to be divided into three parts — the
forehead, the nose, and the chin with the mouth.
And he gives minute prescriptions for the composition

58 THE GIOTTESCHl [1330

of the landscape and arrangement ol trees and rocks,
as well as the rudiments of perspective to be observed
in drawing buildings. Fresco-painting he calls de-
lightful and charming work, but on the whole he
himself prefers tempera, which is, after all, " the proper
employment of a gentleman, who, with velvet on
his back, may spend what he pleases." The student
IS advised always to choose the best and most famous
master, and remain with him, remembering that Taddeo
was the great Giotto's disciple during twenty-four years,
and that this is a far better way of attaining to excel-
lence than to be constantly wandering from one
teacher to another. Another piece of solid advice
which Cennino gives the beginner, is the importance
of using fine gold and the best colours, especially in
painting figures of Our Lady. " If you say that you
are poor and cannot afford the expense, remembef
that the fame you will gain by good work will bring
you two ducats where others will only receive one,
according to the old proverb : * Good work, good
pay ; ' and whenever you are not well paid, God
and Our Lady will reward you, both in soul
and body.' The writer is never tired of dwelling on
the high seriousness of Art, on the solitude, abstinence,
and absolute devotion which this calling demands.
The young painter must regulate his way of living
as carefully as the student of theology or philos-
ophy ; he must take little wine, eat and drink
temperately, and avoid the company of women,
which is apt to render the hand unsteady. Above
all, he must bear in mind the distinctly religious side
of his work, and begin by invoking the most Holy
Trinity and glorious Virgin Mary before he prepares

1430] THE SPANISH CHAPEL 59

the foundation of his picture. Cennino's frequent
allusions to Giotto, and the profound reverence with
which he always mentions him show how fondly
the great master's memory was cherished by the third
generation of artists which had arisen since his death.
The second great storehouse of Trecento art in
Florence is Santa Maria Novella, the Dominican
Church, built in the last years of the thirteenth
century by a succession of friar architects. Both
Cimabue and Giotto had adorned this church with
their works, and frescoes by Giottesque artists may
still be seen in the crypt and cloisters, while one of
the best preserved and most complete schemes of
decoration executed by Trecento artists is to be
found in the ancient Chapter-house. This building
is now known as the Spanish Chapel, a name which
it acquired in 1556, when Duke Cosimo I. granted
the use of the hall to the suite of his wife Eleanor
of Toledo. The Chapter-house was founded in
1350 by Buonamico Guidalotti, a wealthy Florentine,
in honour of the newly instituted Festival of Corpus
Christi, and was not yet finished when he made his
will five years later. The architect was a Dominican
brother, Fra Jacopo Talenti, but the names of the
artists who painted the interior remain unknown.
Vasari ascribes the frescoes partly to Taddeo Gaddi,
who may have designed some of the subjects, but
has left no trace of his hand on the walls, and partly
to Simone Martini, who could have had no share in
the work, since he left Italy in 1339, and died at
Avignon in 1344. Both Milanesi and Cavalcaselle
ascribe the frescoes formerly assigned to Simone,
to Andrea da Firenze, the painter of the Legend

6o THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-

of S. Ranieri in the Campo Santo, while the last-
named writer considers the subjects on the roof to
be the work of Antonio Veneziano, the master who
completed the series of Andrea's frescoes at Pisa.
The general scheme was evidently carefully drawn
up by the Prior of the convent, and probably
several different artists were employed to carry
out his ideas. None of these were masters of
the first rank, but the whole effect is fine and
imposing, and affords a curious and characteristic
illustration of contemporary theology. The Ship of
the Church, a repetition of Giotto's Navicella, the
Resurrection, Ascension, and Descent of the Holy
Ghost, are represented on the four compartments
of the ceiling, and a crowded composition of the
Crucifixion covers the wall above the altar. But
the glorification of the Dominican Order was the
real object in view, and the chief interest centres
in the two large allegorical frescoes on the East
and West walls, in which the mission of the
Dominicans in teaching and saving souls is set
forth. On the East wall, to the right of the
entrance. Pope Benedict XL and the Emperor Henry
Vn. are enthroned, as representatives of the spiritual
and temporal power, attended by cardinals and cour-
tiers, while the flock of the faithful slumber peacefully
at their feet, watched over by black and white dogs
— Domini canes^ or hounds of the Lord. Behind, a
model of Arnolfo's Duomo and Giotto's Campanile
appears, and Dominican friars are seen preaching
to heretics, who tear up their false books, while
black and white dogs drive away the wolves that
devour Christ's flock. On the wall above, symbolising

1430] THE SPANISH CHAPEL 6z

the pleasures of the world, are a group of knights
and fair ladies with falcons and lap-dogs, seated under
a grove of pomegranate trees ; and one richly-dressed
lady in green, called by Vasari Petrarch's Laura,
represents Earthly Love. Further to the right a
Dominican friar gives absolution to a penitent soul
and points out the way to Paradise, where angels
welcome the elect, and St. Peter stands ready to
unlock the golden gates ; and beyond, we catch a
glimpse of saints in glory and happy spirits dancing
hand in hand. On the opposite wall St. Thomas
Aquinas is enthroned between Prophets and Evan-
gelists, under a Gothic canopy, with the Book of
Wisdom open in his hands, and the heretics Arius,
Sabellius and Averroes crouching vanquished at
his feet. Beneath, we have a row of fourteen Virtues
and Sciences, seated in richly carved Gothic stalls,
with illustrious teachers at their feet. Cicero, con-
spicuous by his fine intellectual face, sits at the
feet of Rhetoric ; Justinian, wearing a blue robe
and white and gold crown, appears under the figure
of Civil Law ; Pythagoras represents Arithmetic ;
Pope Clement V., Canon Law ; Boethius, Theology,
and Aristotle, the science of Dialectics. The refined
and thoughtful philosopher, wearing a gold crown
on his head, and seated at the feet of Astronomy,
is said to represent Atlas, the first king of Fiesole,
while Tubal Cain, a shaggy, long-haired patriarch,
lifts his hammer to strike the anvil, under the green-
robed form of Music. These allegorical figures lack
the convincing power and reality of Giotto's Vices
and Virtues, but many of the heads have a certain
grandeur, and the way in which the whole system

62 THE GIOTTESCHI li330-

of mediaeval education is illustrated does credit to
the invention of the Dominican Prior.

It is also within the walls of Santa Maria Novella
that we find the only paintings now remaining by the
hand of a far better master than any of those who
were employed in the Spanish Chapel, Andrea Orcagna.
This artist, the best of all the Giotteschi painters, and,
next to Giotto himself, the greatest Florentine master
of the century, was the son of a goldsmith named
Cione. The surname of Orcagna, by which he became
generally known, seems to have been an abbreviation
of Arcagnolo, which he acquired from his home in the
parish of St. Michael the Archangel. Born ab ut the
year 1308, Andrea belonged to a family of artists,
and was, like Giotto himself, architect, sculptor and
painter. Like Giotto, he was a man of genial temper
and pleasant manner, who made himself beloved by all.
And like Giotto, too, he wrote poetry, and a book of
his sonnets is preserved in the Magliabecchian Library,
while a later poet, Burchiello, mentions Orcagna
among the poets who in past days have written of
love. After learning the elements of painting from his
elder brother Nardo, Orcagna studied sculpture under
Andrea Pisano. But he matriculated in the Painters'
Guild in 1343, and was only admitted to the art of
wood and stone carvers nine years later. By this
time he was already recognised as the best Florentine
painter who had arisen since the death of Giotto, and
as such was employed on extensive works in Santa
Maria Novella. The frescoes of the life of the Virgin,
with which he decorated the choir, were, unfortun-
ately, ruined by a violent storm in 1358, and finally
painted over by Ghirlandajo, who, according to Vasari,

MADONNA BY ANDREA ORCAGNA. (S. MARIA NOVELLA.)

[ To face page (iT.

I430] ORCAGNA'S FRESCOES 63

repeated Orcagna's composition in many instances.
After finishing the choir, Andrea was employed to
execute three large frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel.
Of these, the Inferno, an exact representation of the
Malebolge of Dante, whose poem Andrea studied
attentively, has been entirely repainted, while the
Paradise and Last Judgment have been much
damaged by damp and restoration. Enough remains,
however, to give us a high idea of Orcagna's powers.
The forms are better drawn, there is a distinct advance
in structural accuracy in foreshortening and modelling,
together with more beauty of feature than is found
in the work of other Giotteschi masters. The best
qualities of contemporary Sienese and Florentine art
are here combined, while there is a grandeur and
solemnity about the whole that recalls Giotto's con-
ceptions. The two angels playing the lyre and violin at
the feet of Christ and his Mother, in the Paradise, are
strong and graceful beings, and the white-robed
Virgin kneeling before the Judge, interceding for
sinful mortals, is one of the finest figures in Trecento
art. The large altar-piece in the same chapel was
also painted for the Strozzi family by Andrea, after
he had completed the frescoes, between the years
1354 and 1357. A figure of Christ enthroned
and worshipped by angels occupies the central com-
partment. On the right, the Virgin presents St.
Thomas Aquinas, to whom he gives the book of
the Gospels ; and on the left, the Baptist introduces
St. Peter, who receives the keys from his Lord's
hands. St. Katharine and St. Michael stand behind
the Virgin, and a noble figure of St. Paul, with
a long beard and intellectual head, accompanied by

64 THE GIOTTESCHl [1330-

St. Laurence, fills up the opposite corner of the picture,
to which is attached a predella representing incidents
in the lives of these saints. Both in this altar-piece
and in his mural paintings we are conscious of a
certain austerity and symmetry of design, and realise
that Orcagna was greater as a sculptor than as a
painter. His chief achievement in this direction was
the famous tabernacle which he designed and exe-
cuted between 1349 and 1359, for the church of
Or' San Michele, to contain a wonder-working
picture of the Madonna which had become the
object of popular devotion during the great plague
of 1348. This white marble shrine, with its spiral
columns and pinnacles rising almost to the roof of the
church, delicately carved and studded with jewels and
enamels, is in itself a marvel of the sculptor and gold-
smith's art ; while Andrea's vigorous and dramatic bas-
reliefs of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin form
a connecting link between the sculptures of Giotto's
Campanile and the bronze gates of the Baptistery.
From 1355 to 1359 Andrea held the post of Capo-
maestro to this church of Or' San Michele, which
had arisen on the site of the ancient Corn Market, and
was under the protection of the seven chief Florentine
Guilds. In 1356 he received an order from the
Signory to build the Loggia de' Priori, which bears his
name, on the public square, but never executed the
work, which was only begun seventy years later. In
the same year his design for the chief doorway of the
Duomo was accepted, and in 1358 he was summoned
to Orvieto, and appointed Capo-maestro of the Duomo
works. He afterwards returned there at intervals,
and executed the mosaic decorations of the fagade

1430] FRESCOES IN THE CAMPO SANTO 65

in 1362, but his numerous engagements in Florence
compelled him to give up the office. In 1368, a
dangerous illness forced him to leave the completion
of an altar-piece, ordered by the Guild of Money-
changers for Or' San Michele, to his brother Jacopo,
and before the end of the year he died, leaving a son
who became a painter, and two young daughters
named Tessa and Romola.

The name of Andrea Orcagna was long connected
with another celebrated sanctuary decorated by
Giottesque artists — the Campo Santo of Pisa ; but
Vasari's assertion that he painted the Triumph of
Death is absolutely without foundation, and these
famous frescoes are now generally recognised to be
the work of an unknown Sienese master. Florentine
influences, however, are mingled with these traditions.
Both Dante and Boccaccio's thought, it is plain, in-
spired the author of this great Vision of Life and Death,
while the Angels of Judgment and Mercy recall
Orcagna's forms. In spite of their separate origin
and distinctive features, the art of Florence and Siena
acted mutually on each other in many respects during
the fourteenth century, and Sienese influences became
increasingly apparent in the works of the later
Giotteschi. Among these were several painters who
assisted in the decoration of the Campo Santo.
Native art in Pisa never rose above mediocrity, and
after the death of the Lorenzetti brothers in the plague
of 1348, and the consequent decline of Sienese art,
the Directors of the Cathedral works sought the help
of Florentine artists to adorn the stately cloisters
erected by Giovanni Pisano. In 1371, they engaged
Francesco da Volterra, a Giottesque master who had

E

66 THE GIOTTESCHl ti33o- »

settled at Pisa about 1 346, and was elected a member
of the Great Council in 1358, to paint the history of
Job on the south wall of the Campo Santo. These
six subjects, which were long ascribed to Giotto, are
the most damaged of the whole series, but the remain-
ing fragments show considerable inventive faculty and
power of expression. Especially striking is the vision
of the Court of Heaven, with Christ encircled by a
rosy cloud that floats over a landscape of rocks and
sea, and Satan, as a horned fiend with bat's wings,
pleading his cause. The contrast between the con-
dition of Job in his prosperity, feasting among his
friends, and surrounded by flocks and servants, and the
bereft and lonely state to which he is reduced in the
day of affliction, is finely brought out ; and the towers
and domes of a mediaeval city rise picturesquely in
the background of the double subject.

The next Giottesque master who worked in the
Campo Santo was Andrea da Firenze, the painter,
according to Cavalcaselle, of the Spanish Chapel.
On the 13th October 1377, this artist received 529 lire
and 10 soldi as a final instalment of the sum due to
him for three frescoes of the story of the Pisan Saint,
Ranieri, which he painted on the upper part of the
South wall. Andrea was evidently an artist of some
repute, but these scenes in which the conversion of
the Saint and his pilgrimage to the Holy Land are
set forth, display the same conventional types and
feeble and ineffective composition that we find in
the frescoes of the Spanish Chapel, without having the
interest of the subjects there represented. When the
upper course of San Ranieri's life was finished, Andrea
left Pisa, to execute other works in Florence; and after

1430] ANTONIO VENEZIANO 67

waiting several years for his return, the Directors of the
Campo Santo invited Antonio Veneziano to complete
the series. A Venetian by birth, Antonio early be-
came the assistant of Agnolo Gaddi, and matriculated
in the Florentine Guild of Painters in 1374, after
which he returned to Venice, and was employed
to paint a fresco in the Hall of the Great Council.
In spite of his merits, however, he failed to win the
approval of his countrymen, and leaving Venice in
disgust he came back to Florence, where he executed
many works in the Certosa of Val d'Ema and other
churches, which have now perished, and attained a
well-deserved reputation. From 1384 to 1386, he
lived at Pisa, in a house belonging to the Administra-
tion of the Cathedral Works, and received 210 florins
for three frescoes representing the return of San
Ranieri from the Holy Land, his death and the
translation of his body to the Duomo, and the miracles
wrought by his relics. The vigour and animation
with which these subjects are illustrated, and the
clearness and brightness of the few remnants of
original colour that still remain, justify the high
praise bestowed by Vasari on these works, which he
pronounces to be the finest of all the frescoes painted
by many excellent masters in the Campo Santo.
The first subject is the best preserved and most
successful, showing us, as it does, the galleys arriving
in the harbour, with the wind swelling their sails, and
the Saint's miraculous conversion of the inn-keeper,
whom he convicts of mixing water with wine, at the
suggestion of a demon seated in the form of a cat on
the top of the barrel. Here again the architectural
details are full of picturesque charm, and in the next

6S THE GIOTTESCHI [1330^

two subjects, the Duomo, Baptistery and leaning
Tower are all introduced. Antonio Veneziano
executed several other works in the Cathedral, and
remained at Pisa till August 1387, after which we lose
sight of him, and are left to believe Vasari's assertion,
that he became so much interested in chemical ex-
periments, that in his old age he abandoned painting
for the study of medicine. But he was a master of
considerable power, and as the pupil of Agnolo Gaddi
and the master of Stamina, he forms an important
link in the development of Florentine art.

Yet two more Giottesque masters were employed in
the Campo Santo during the last years of the fourteenth
century : Pietro di Puccio, of Orvieto — who painted
four frescoes of the Creation, the Fall of Man, Death
of Abel, and the Deluge, on the North wall, in the
year 1390 — and Spinello Aretino. In his attempt to
represent the work of Creation, Puccio shows him-
self an inferior artist, as much influenced by Sienese
as Giottesque tradition, and quite unable to draw
nude forms correctly, but not without considerable
gifts of poetic invention, which find their happiest
expression in the fruit-trees and singing-birds, the
marble fountains and terraces of the Garden of Eden.
Spinello was a more popular and prolific artist, who
painted the five frescoes of the legend of the warrior
Saints, Efeso and Potito on the South wall, within
the space of seven months, and received 1032 lire for
his work in March 1392. Born at Arezzo about 1433,
and sprung from a family of goldsmiths, he became a
scholar of Jacopo da Casentino, and painted an im-
mense number of frescoes in Florence and Arezzo
during the course of his long life. His delight in

I430] SPINELLO ARETINO 69

battle-pieces and crowded and animated scenes finds
expression both in his Campo Santo works and in the
sixteen frescoes representing the wars of Barbarossa
and the ultimate triumph of the Sienese Pope,
Alexander III., which he painted in the Palazzo
Pubblico at Siena, in 1408. Like Orcagna and most
of the later Giotteschi, Spinello combines many of
the characteristics of Florentine and Sienese artists,
but his skill in telling a story and his bright and
decorative colouring are marred by superficial and
hasty execution. Some of his best compositions are
to be seen in the sacristy of S. Miniato al Monte,
which he adorned with legends of the life of St
Benedict, and some of his worst in the Pharmacy of
the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella, where he
executed a series of scenes from the Passion in his
last years. He retired to his native town of Arezzo
at the end of 1408, and died there in March 1410,
painting frescoes up to the last. According to Vasari,
his end was hastened by a sudden fright which he
received from a vision of Lucifer, who appeared to
him in his sleep, and reproached him for having repre-
sented him in so hideous a form in his fresco of the
fallen angels. In his work at Siena, Spinello had an
able and efficient helper in his son Gaspare, better
known as Parri Spinello, who has left many examples
of his art in Arezzo, and who carried on Giottesque
traditions into the middle of the next century.

Another painter who, although he worked in the
first quarter of the fifteenth century, may be classed
among Trecento artists, was Lorenzo Monaco, the
Camaldolese monk belonging to the convent of S.
Maria degli Angeli in Florence. A native of Siena,

fo THE GIOTTESCHI i^SSQ^

where he was born about 1370, this gentle brother,
who was received into the Order in December 1391,
brought ideal charm and sweetness to blend with the
Giottesque style which he acquired from Agnolo
Gaddi. Both the early Adoration of the Magi in the
Uffizi, and the altar-piece of the Annunciation in S.
Trinita, are curiously like Simone Martini's work,
while the frescoes of the Virgin's life, which have
been recently recovered from the whitewash which
concealed them, recall Giotto's types and composition.
These last are full of solemn inspiration and genuine
artistic charm, and the good monk's poetic invention
finds expression in the broken and varied scenery,
the islands and castellated rocks and sea-shore of the
landscape backgrounds. But Lorenzo's masterpiece
is the large Coronation in the Uffizi, which he painted
in 141 3, for the high altar of his own convent church,
and which was removed, 2(X) years later, to the
daughter convent of Cerreto, half-way between
Florence and Siena. Here the tender devotion of
the saints' heads and the angels swinging censers
or kneeling round the throne already speak to us
of Fra Angelico, while new and brilliant effects of
colour are produced by the use of transparent white
glazes. As in the works of many Sienese painters,
reality is sacrificed to artistic effect, and under
the saintly artist's hand, earthly objects are trans-
figured by the glory of heaven. The Camaldolese
painter soon acquired a fame which drew him beyond
the narrow precincts of his convent walls. In 1402,
he went to Rome to paint a missal for Cardinal
Acciaiuoli, and on his return he was employed by
the City Guilds to design cartoons for the stained-

I

I430] LORENZO MONACO 71

glass windows of Or' San Michele. He also painted
the choir-books of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova,
and, in 1422, received 114 gold florins for an altar-piece
which he executed for the Chapel of S. Egidio in that
foundation. No record of him is found after this
date, and his death took place when he was away
from Florence, about 1425. Lorenzo Monaco's career
gave a marked impulse to the practice of art within
the cloister, and a school of miniature painters sprang
up in the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli, which
soon found rivals in the other monastic communities
of Florence, more especially in the Dominican houses
of Fiesole and S. Marco.

Taddeo Gaddi —

Florence. — Santa Croce : Baroncelli Chapel: Frescoes — Life
of the Virgin.
„ Medici Chapel : Coronation of the Virgin,

„ Accademia: 104-115. Life of Christ ; 1 17-126. Life

of St. Francis.

Giovanni da Milano —

Florence. — Santa Croce : Cappella Rinuccini; Frescoes — Lives
of the Virgin and Magdalene.
„ Accademia: 131. Piet4, 1365.

GlOTTINO —

Florence. — Santa Croce: Frescoes — Life of St. Sylvester.
„ Uffizi: 27. Piet^

Agnolo Gaddi —

Florence. — Santa Croce : Frescoes — Legend of the True Cross.
Prato. — Duomo : Frescoes — Legend of the Holy Girdle.

Andrea Orcagna —

Florence. — Santa Maria Nevella, Strozzi Chapel : Frescoes-
Last Judgment, Inferno, Paradiso. Altar-piecs©
— Christ and Saints.

Andrea da Firenze —

Florence. — Spanish Chapel: Frescoes.

/*wa. — Campo Santo: Frescoes — Life of S, Ranieri,

72 THE GIOTTESCHI [1330-1430

Antonio Veneziano —

Pisa. — Campo Santo: Frescoes — Life of S. Ranieri.

Spinello Aretino —

Florence. — S. Miniato al Monte : Frescoes — Life of St.
Benedict ; S. Maria Novella. Farmacia : Life
of Christ.
Pisa. — Campo Santo: Frescoes — Lives of S. Efeso and Potito.
Siena. — Palazzo Pubhlico : Frescoes — Wars of Barbarossa.

Lorenzo Monaco —

Florence. — Accademia aelle Belle Arti:

143. Annunciation.

144. Life of S. Onofrio.

145. Nativity.

146. Life of St Martin.

(I Uffizi: 39. Adoration of Magi.

40. Pietk.

41. Madonna and Saints.
1309. Coronation.

„ S. Trinith : Annunciation.

„ Bartolini Chapel : Frescoes — Life of Virgin.

Bergamo. — Gallery : 10. Dead Christ.
Prato. — Gallery : 3. Madonna and Saints.
Berlin. — 11 19. Madonna and Saints.
London. — National Gallery : 215, 216. Saints.
Munich. — Pinacothek: 96. St. Peter.
Paris. — Louvre: 1348. Triptych : Saints.

Fresco is a method of painting on a surface of wet plaster, made of
lime and sand, spread over the wall. In buon fresco^ the colours were
laid on this coating or intonaco while it was still wet, and allowed to
sink into the plaster. In fresco a secco the last coat of plaster was
allowed to dry, scraped smooth, and wetted again before it was painted.
Both processes were commonly used by early Florentine masters for
mural painting, and are fully described by Cennino, but were consider-
ably modified by later artists. Tempera, or distemper, the process
commonly used by Italian masters in painting altar-pieces and other
panels, consisted of mixing colours with water and yolk of egg, some-
times diluted with the milky juice of the fig-tree. Frescoes were often
re-touched in tempera zxA fresco a secco, and oil varnishes, Cennino tells
us, were applied both to fresco and tempera paintings as early as the
fourteenth century.

IV

MASOLINO

I 383-1447

The art of Giotto lasted a hundred years. His
personality overshadows the whole of the fourteenth
century, and the study of his followers' works only
serves to make us realise the surpassing glory of
his genius. After him there was no great advance
in Florentine art during several generations. " Giotto
still holds the field," wrote Dante's commentator,
Benvenuto da Imola, in 1376, "for no greater artist
than he has yet arisen, although his works contain
many faults." The testimony is striking, coming
as it does from a contemporary of Orcagna. The
defects in Giotto's art were apparent, but of all
the other artists who had followed in his steps
during the last fifty years, there was not one who
could compare with him. Here and there some
slight signs of progress were perceptible. There
had been a distinct improvement in details and
accessories in landscape and architecture. Giottino
had effected some advance in artistic composition,
Orcagna in scientific rendering of form ; and towards
the end of the century a marked tendency towards
greater realism, and the more accurate representation
of objects, appeared in the works of such men as

74 MASOLINO [1383-

Antonio Veneziano. But the next step forward was
only to come with the opening years of the new
century. As in the days of Giotto, Florence was still
the centre of the new culture, the starting-point of
all literary and artistic endeavour. After the troubles
excited by the revolt of the Ciompi and the final
conquest of Pisa, the Republic entered on a prolonged
period of peace and prosperity. The wealth of her
merchants increased rapidly, and the chiefs of rival
factions, whether Medici or Albizzi, alike devoted
their gold and authority to the encouragement of art
and letters. The first thirty years of the fifteenth
century witnessed a great development of civic life,
which was followed by a corresponding advance in
humanist literature and a wonderful blossoming of
the fine arts. Then Brunellesco modelled the mighty
cupola which is still without a rival in the world ; then
Ghiberti carved the Baptistery gates, and Donatello
worked the passionate dreams of his soul into the
marble Saints which guard the walls of Or' San
Michele. And then, too, Masaccio painted the frescoes
of the Brancacci Chapel, to be the wonder of future
ages and the model of successive generations of
artists in the years to come.

The three essential points which distinguish Quattro-
cento painting from that of the Trecento are : the
accurate study of the human form, the scientific
knowledge of perspective, and the introduction of
classical instead of Gothic architecture. These were
followed by many other minor developments in
modelling and chiaroscuro, in landscape and portrait
painting. Once more the sister-art of sculpture led
the way, and it was Brunellesco and Donatello who

1447] STARNINA 75

imposed their aims and ideals on the new generation
of painters, as Niccol6 and Giovanni Pisano had done
a century before. In the opening years of the fifteenth
century the two most flourishing classes of artists in
Florence were the sculptors and the goldsmiths or
workers in metal. From their shops the men who
were to be the pioneers of the new movement went
forth, and a race of heroic toilers arose, with no desire
but the faithful following of nature and the eager
search after truth. Masaccio was the representative
of the new movement in painting, the man who took
up the banner which had fallen from Giotto's hand,
and bore it one stage further in advance. But great
as his genius was, and bold as were the innovations
which this short-lived master introduced, it would be
a mistake to regard his appearance as that of an
isolated phenomenon. The way was prepared for
him by a succession of lesser artists, who held an
intermediate place in this period of transition, between
the Giotteschi and the Quattrocento painters. Of
these the most important was Gherardo, called Star-
ninUy after his father, Jacopo, surnamed Starna — " the
partridge " — a scholar of Antonio Veneziano, who was
bom in 1354, and admitted to the Painters' Guild
in 1387. During the interval, he had been exiled
on suspicion of being implicated in the Ciompi riots,
and spent nine years in Spain, where he was employed
by the reigning monarch, John of Castille, and executed
paintings which were still to be seen in the Escurial,
early in this century. The young Florentine's natur-
ally wild and turbulent nature became tamed, and his
rough manners polished by his residence at the court
of Castille ; and when, in 1387, he returned to Florence,

76 MASOLINO [1383-

richly endowed by his royal patron, and highly skilled
in his art, he found friends and work in abundance.
Stamina acquired great renown by the frescoes which
he painted in a chapel of the Carmine, in which he
introduced many personages in Spanish costume, as
well as a variety of life-like and humorous incidents
He died in 1408, and was lamented by his contempor-
aries as an artist of " profound invention and elegant
execution." But since none of his works are in
existence now, it is only by studying the paintings
of his followers that we are able to form any idea of
his style.

One of these was Antonio Vite, of Pistoia, whom
Stamina sent to Pisa in 1403, in his stead, and
who afterwards executed some curious frescoes in
the Chapel of the Assumption at Prato. Vite was
an artist of little power and importance, but in these
paintings of the life of the Virgin and of St. Stephen
we see a marked change of style. The composition,
it is true, follows the old Giottesque lines ; but the
heads are shorter and flatter, the features more
strongly marked, the lights are brighter and the
shadows deeper. There is more realism in the
draperies and costumes, the caps are wound round
the head like turbans, as in Masolino and Masaccio's
works, the faces are more individual, and there is a
new sense of life and movement in the figures who
crowd around the dying martyr. Besides Antonio
Vite, Stamina numbered among his pupils two artists
who attained high distinction in the coming century,
and held an important place in the annals of Florentine
art. These were Fra Angelico and Masolino, the
master of Masaccio.

1447] MASOLINO 77

The similarity of names between these two men
the elder, Tommaso, who was known as Masolino,
" Little Tom," and the younger, who acquired the nick-
name of Masaccio, " Big Tom," or, as Browning renders
it, " hulking Tom," has been productive of endless
confusion. At one time the very personality of
Masolino was in danger of being merged in that of
his more distinguished scholar. But recent research
has done much to clear away these difficulties, and
to distinguish between the work of the two artists,
if the chronology of their lives still remains wrapt in
obscurity, and if critics cannot yet agree as to the
exact share which each master had in the famous
frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel. Masolino, or, to call
him by his full name, Tommaso di Cristoforo di
Fino, was the son of a house-painter of Panicale, a
hamlet in the commune of Colle di Val d'Elsa, where
he was born in 1383. Vasari's statements that he
learnt painting of Stamina, and worked as a gold-
smith in Ghiberti's shop, are both probably correct.
It is true that Masolino was only five years younger
than Ghiberti, but since he did not matriculate as
a painter until January 1423, he may have been
employed before this as that master's assistant.
Throughout his career, his amiable character and
impressionable nature led him to make friends easily,
and to assimilate new ideas wherever he met with
them. Of his early works we have no record, and
the first painting we have from his hand is a Madonna,
at Bremen, which bears the date of 1423, together
with the inscription : 0 quanta misericordia di
Dio I — " O how great is the mercy of God ! " Here
the drapery recalls Lorenzo Monaco*s style, while the

f$ MASOLINO [1383-

slender form and expressive face are characteristic of
Stamina's followers. Another Madonna at Munich
belongs evidently to a somewhat later date, and
resembles Gentile da Fabriano's work, both in the
attitude of the Virgin, who, with one knee on the
ground, adores the child whom she supports with
her arm, and in the lavish use of gold embroidery
on her robe. Both of these have the full rounded
foreheads and placid gaze that distinguish all Maso-
lino's figures.

About the year 1423, Masolino, who was then
living in the parish of S. Felicity in Florence,
was entrusted with the task of decorating a chapel
in the Carmine, which had been lately built by
Felice Brancacci. This eminent citizen was sent,
in 1422, on an embassy to the Sultan of Babylon, to
obtain certain privileges for Florentine merchants,
and in a will which he made before his departure
he speaks of his new foundation, but does not mention
the frescoes, which were, apparently, not yet begun.
During the next two years Masolino and his young
assistant, Masaccio, decorated the roof and upper part
of the chapel walls with frescoes of the four Evangelists
and the Call, Denial, and Ship of St. Peter. These
subjects, which adorned the ceiling and lunettes on
the upper part of the walls, have been destroyed,
while the twelve frescoes on the lower walls and
pilasters remain. Three of these frescoes, the Fall
of Adam and Eve, the Preaching of Peter, and the
double subject of the Raising of Tabitha and Healing
of the Cripple at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple,
have been ascribed by many of the best critics to
Masolino, and certainly bear strong marks of hL*?

1447] THE BRANCACCI FRESCOES 79

style. But they are so much superior to the later
work executed by Masolino, that it is difficult to
suppose they are by his hand ; while their position,
on the upper part of the walls above Masaccio's
indisputable works, makes it almost impossible that
they should have been added after the death of that
painter. These reasons go far to justify Crowe and
Cavalcaselle's contention, that Masaccio was the author
of all the frescoes now remaining in the Brancacci
Chapel, and that the differences we discern in the
earlier and later works are only the result of the same
artist's gradual development and emancipation from
his master's style — such as we see, for instance, in the
case of Raphael. Certainly the Crucifixion in the
Mond collection, or the St. Sebastian at Bergamo,
come as near to Perugino's manner as these three
frescoes do to that of Masolino. When Albertini
and Vasari state that half of the Chapel was
painted by Masolino, and half by Masaccio, they
probably allude to the destroyed frescoes of the roof
and lunettes, which were undoubtedly Masolino's
work ; while in the case of the three doubtful subjects,
the scholar may well have made use of cartoons
prepared by the master before he was called away.

Masolino's presence in Florence in 1425, is proved
by a small payment made to him by a Guild con-
nected with the Carmine Church ; but in the same
year he went to Hungary, at the request of Filippo
Scolari, a Florentine soldier who had defeated the
Turks and risen to high distinction in the service of
Sigismund, king of Hungary. This bold Ghibelline
leader, now Obergespan or Hospodar of Temeswar
in Hungary, popularly known in his old home as

8o MASOLINO [1383-

Pippo Spano, invited Masolino to decorate a church
which he had built at Stuhlweissenburg. Leaving
Masaccio to finish the frescoes of the Brancacci
Chapel, the Florentine master travelled to Hungary,
where he entered the Hospodar's service, and remained
there some time after his patron's death in the follow-
ing year. This is proved by the following income-tax
return of 1427, made by Masolino's father, Cristoforo
di Fino, who was then living in the quarter of Santa
Croce of Florence : — " Tommaso my son is in Hungary,
and is said to have received a certain quantity of money
from the heirs of Messer Filippo Scolari, but how much
I do not know, and therefore cannot state. There are
360 florins of common property here."

On his return to Italy, Masolino stopped in
Lombardy, at the invitation of Cardinal Branda
di Castiglione, an illustrious Milanese prelate, who
had been sent to Hungary as papal legate, and
may have seen the artist when he passed through
Florence on his way from Rome in 1425. Here
Cardinal Branda employed him to paint the choir
of the noble Collegiate Church which he had
lately built in his native town of Castiglione
on the banks of the river Olona, near Varese.
The Church was consecrated in 1425, by Branda
himself, and the decoration of the interior was com-
pleted in 1428, as we learn from an inscription on
a bas-relief over the portal. These frescoes, which
were only discovered sixty years ago, when the
whitewash was removed from the walls, represent
the history of the Virgin, and scenes from the life
of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, to whom the church
was dedicated. The best preserved subjects are those

1447] FRESCOES AT CASTIGLIONE 8i

on the vaulted ceiling, among others a fine com-
position of the Nativity, with a noble and dignified
figure of Cardinal Branda among the worshippers
at the manger, and a cartellino bearing the words,
Masolinus de Florentia pinxit^ in the left-hand
corner.

The profile of the youthful Madonna and the
slender angel-forms recall the types of Masolino's
fellow-pupil, Fra Angelico, but the faces have none
of the Dominican master's intensity of expressioa
We see Masolino here at the age of forty-five, still
as a distinctly Giottesque designer, timidly attempting
to adopt new practices, introducing classic as well
as Gothic architecture in his buildings, deeper folds
in his draperies, and stronger modelling in his figures.
But in the frescoes which Masolino painted seven
years later in the Baptistery at Castiglione, we find
a striking advance, and there can be little doubt
that he returned to Florence during the interval, and
became acquainted with the latest developments of
the new school. There he found such artists as
Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno engaged in
working out the latest problems of scientific per-
spective, and rendering form and movement with
the vigorous realism which we admire in Hawk-
wood of his equestrian portrait. He found his old
comrade Ghiberti at work on his second Baptistery
gate, and Donatello engaged on the marble singing-
gallery with the famous frieze of children, for the
Duomo. And in that same Brancacci Chapel, where
he had painted his own frescoes a few years before,
he now saw the wonderful works of his old scholar,
the marvellous youth Masaccio, who, after painting

F

82 MASOLINO [1383-

these masterpieces, had left his work unfinished, and
had gone to die, unknown and unhonoured, in Rome.
The second series of Masolino's works at Castig-
lione show us how ready he was to receive new
impressions, and how attentively he had studied
these things in his old home. The Baptis-
tery frescoes abound in reminiscences of the new
Quattrocento art, which was fast superseding the
old Giottesque tradition. Both the Evangelists and
Angels on the ceiling, and the Gabriel and Virgin
of the ruined Annunciation on the entrance wall,
still recall Angelico by their slender forms and
masses of fair curls ; while the small folds and
flowing scroll-work of the draperies are curiously
like Ghiberti's reliefs. But in the scenes from the
Baptist's life there is far more of the new realism.
The Baptist standing before Herod is a fine and
imposing figure, and the action of the soldier who
strikes off his head in prison is singularly well
rendered, although the structure of the forms is still
vague and uncertain, and the limbs and details of
the hands and feet are often badly drawn. The
shivering boy wrapping his yellow cloak around
him, in the Baptism of Christ, and the man with
his back turned towards us in the act of pulling
off his shirt, are plainly adapted from Masaccio's
famous fresco in the Carmine, and are both excel-
lently drawn ; the figure of Christ, again, standing in
the stream of Jordan, is not without a certain
grandeur ; but the arms of the Baptist are too short,
and his whole form is awkward and ill-proportioned.
Perhaps the most effective subject of the whole series
is that of Salome before Herod. Here the story is

1447] BAPTISTERY FRESCOES 83

told with a naive sincerity, mingled with a new sense
of actuality, which are very characteristic of Masolino.
Herod and his guests are seated at table, under a
classical loggia, decorated with a frieze of cherubs
bearing garlands, such as Jacopo della Quercia had
carved on Ilaria del Carretto's tomb at Lucca, twenty
years before, and Salome, a gentle and modest maiden,
with arms folded across her breast, advances to proffer
her request to the king. The two fashionably dressed
courtiers behind her closely resemble the figures in
the Raising of Tabitha, in the Brancacci Chapel,
and in the fine profile of the middle-aged man, with
the short beard and moustache, we recognise the
portrait of Masolino himself, as painted by Masaccio
in his fresco of the Healing of the Cripple, and repro-
duced by Vasari in his life of the artist. The aged
priest with the keen face and white hair, seated next
to Herod at dinner, clad in purple and white ermine,
is evidently Cardinal Branda, who was at that time
over eighty years of age ; while in the Hungarian
magnate at his side, with the huge bear-skin and
long dark beard, we have a portrait of Masolino's
former patron, the great Hospodar, Pippo Spano.
Under the open colonnade on the right we see
another group. Herodias, robed in gorgeous flowered
brocades, and wearing a small gold crown on the top
of a towering turban, receives the Baptist's head, which
Salome presents on her knees. The girl's long hair
is wreathed with roses, and both mother and daughter
have the same air of quiet content on their faces ; but
the two maidens in plum-coloured robes, standing
behind Herodias, start back and hold up their hands
in horror at the dreadful sight. In the distance

84 MASOLINO [1383-

beyond the loggia roof and the long arcades of
the court, the Saint's disciples are seen bearing
their master's remains to his burial, in a mountain
landscape that strongly resembles the backgrounds
of Ghiberti's reliefs.

After the year 1435 — which is the date inscribed
on the Baptistery frescoes — we have no further record
of Masolino, and it is only on the strength of internal
evidence that another series of frescoes in the basilica
of S. Clemente, in Rome, can be ascribed to him.
These paintings, which Vasari attributes to Masaccio,
are now generally recognised to be by the elder
master, and are supposed by many critics to have
been early works executed between 141 7 and 1420,
when Branda di Castiglione was titular Cardinal
of S. Clemente. But the great advance in the style
of these frescoes renders it inconceivable that they
should belong to an earlier date than those at
Castiglione, and Dr. Wickhoff is no doubt right in
assigning them to the last years of Masolino's life,
when another Lombard prelate, Enrico di Allosio
was Cardinal of S. Clemente. On the right wall of
the chapel are four scenes from the life of St
Ambrose, that favourite Milanese saint. In the first,
the Saint is seen lying as a babe in his cradle, where
he is attacked by a swarm of bees, which his nurse-
maid vainly endeavours to drive away, but which, to
the amazement of his parents, do him no injury. In
the second, his election as Bishop of Milan is decided
by the sudden appearance of the Christ-Child, who
singles him out as chosen of God for the office. The
third represents an incident in one of St. Ambrose's
journeys, when the house of a rich nobleman who had

1447] FRESCOES OF S. CLEMENTE 8$

refused to receive him was suddenly submerged ; and
in the fourth we have a picture of the Saint's death-
bed. This last scene is laid in a small red-walled
chamber, with writing-table, desk and books, and a
Murano glass standing on the cupboard-shelf, and is
interesting as one of the earliest examples of an
interior in Quattrocento art. On the opposite wall
are five scenes from the life of St. Katherine of
Alexandria. The triumph of the Virgin-saint over
the pagan philosophers of Maxentius, the conversion
of the Empress, and the death of the youthful martyr,
are all illustrated. In these scenes we recognise
Masolino's peculiar type of face and hands, as well
as his usual treatment of draperies. The perspective
of the buildings is more correct, the individual heads
are full of character, and there is much charm in the
figure of the youthful Saint, standing up to expound
the Christian faith before the Emperor and his wise
men. But the greatest triumph of Masolino's art
is the large Crucifixion on the wall over the altar.
It is impossible to look at this imposing scene
without thinking that the original conception must
have been due to Masaccio, and that Masolino must
have had some cartoon by the dead artist's hand
to be his guide. The wide landscape with its low
range of hills and sea-shore, the three crosses rising
against the sky, the animated crowd of horsemen and
soldiers in the foreground, and the pathetic group of
the holy women, all help to make up a singularly
noble and striking picture. Yet Masolino's peculiar
types and mannerisms are to be seen here, especially
in the faces of the women and in the action of the
kneeling Magdalen. And as Dr. Wickhoff points

86 MASOLINO [1383

out, the armed riders and horses, and the effect of
h'ght on the distant sea recall the style of another
artist, the great Veronese master, Pisanello, whose
recent paintings in the Lateran must have been
familiar to Masolino, and whose rare imaginative
powers made a profound impression on many of
his contemporaries.

Another work which Masolino probably executed
during this visit to Rome, although at an earlier
date than the S. Clemente frescoes, is the altar-piece,
now at Naples, in which the foundation of a church,
the Madonna of the Snows, by Pope Martin V. is
represented, and the Madonna appears above, en-
circled by an almond-shaped glory of angels. Enrico
di Allosio only became Cardinal of S. Clemente in
1446, so that if Masolino painted the frescoes in
the basilica by his order, he was already sixty-three.
His death seems to have taken place soon afterwards,
and it is not unlikely that he is the artist named
Tommaso di Cristofano who was buried in Santa
Maria del Fiore on the i8th of October, 1447.
According to Vasari his chief works were painted
about 1440, a statement which in itself is fairly
correct, although it cannot be said to agree with the
same writer's assertion that he died at thirty-seven.
But incorrect as is Vasari's chronology, his remarks
on Masolino's style are remarkably just, and he gives
this master full credit for his share in the new
movement. " Masolino," he writes, " was a man
of rare intelligence, and his paintings are executed
with great love and diligence. I have often examined
his works, and find his style to be essentially different
from that of those who came before him. He gave

1447] VASARI ON HIS STYLE 87

majesty to his figures, and introduced finely designed
folds in his draperies. He began to understand light
and shade, and to give his forms relief, and succeeded
in some very diflficult foreshortenings. He also gave
greater sweetness of expression to his women-heads,
and gayer costumes to his young men, and his per-
spective is tolerably correct. But above all he
excelled in fresco-painting. This he did so well,
and with such delicately blending colours, that his
flesh tones have the utmost softness imaginable,
and if he could have drawn more perfectly, he
would deserve to be numbered among the best
artists."

Chief Works —

Castiglione cTOlona. — Church: Frescoes — Life of the Virgin,
and Lives of St. Stephen and St.
Laurence, 1428.
fi Baptistery : Life of the Baptist, 1435.

Naples, — Museo: 25. Madonna and Christ in Glory; 34. Founda-
tion of the Church of La Madonna della Neve by
Pope Martin V.
Rome. — S. Clemente: Frescoes — Lives of S. Katharine of Alex-
andria and St. Ambrose ; Crucifixion.
Bremen. — Kunsthalle : 164. Madonna, 1423.
Munich* — Pinacothek: 1019. Madonna and Angels.
Gosford House. — Annunciation.
Empoli. — Duomo : Fresco — Piet^.

„ S. Stefano : Fresco— Madonna and Child, with Angels.

V

MASACCIO

1401-1428

"After the days of_Giotto, paintings declined again,_
because every one imitated the pictures that were
already In existence, and thus it wejit on until
'J'ommaso of Florence, surnamed Masaccio, showecT"
by his perfect works how they who take any teacher '
but Nature — the mistress of all masters — labour in
vain." In these words Leonardo expressed his sense
of Masaccio's greatness, and showed how correctly
he estimated this master's position in Florentine art.
For this youth, who died at twenty-six, and never
succeeded in attaining ease or fortune in his lifetime,
brought to art a genius as rare as Giotto's, a gift as
divine as that of Raphael. During the -few, short
years that he lived^harassed with debts and crippled
by poverty, he altered the whole course of Florentine
painting, and left a heritage of immortal works to be
the school of great masters in future generations.

The little certain information that we have regarding
Masaccio's history is due to the famous law first pro-
posed by Rinaldo degli Albizzi and Niccolo di Uzzano,
and sanctioned by the Signory in 1427, by which every
Florentine citizen was required to make a declaration
of his property and income, and to pay a tax of half

1401-1428] HIS CHARACTER 89

per cent, on his capital. Large deductions were
allowed for debts and charges on property, and
shops, dwelling-houses and furniture were exempt.
The CatastOy or register drawn up in 1427, remained
in force during three years, and was then revised.
By this means much valuable information concerning
painters of the fifteenth century has been preserved,
and in Masaccio's case we learn the date of his birth
and death, as well as the few other details about his
circumstances that have come down to us.

Tommaso, the son of Ser Giovanni, a humble
notary of the parish of Castel S. Giovanni in Val
d'Arno, was born in that village, on the Feast of St.
Thomas, December 21, 1401, and named after the
Apostle. He took delight in drawing from his child-
hood^and m ^VasaTi'^s^days* some3>f -M^^sacdq's early
artistic efforts were^stjU Jo be„se in his native
village. Art absorbed him wholly, even in those early
years. "He was," writes Vasari, "so entirely, rapt'
in his art, anH^^^evoted his. .-thoughts And - soul so
absolutely to this one object, that he cared little for.^.
himself, and still less for others.^ And since .he would
never pay any attention to his temporal affairs, and.
hardly took the trouble to clothe himself, and never
ffied^ to recover his debts until he was reduced to the
lasrextremity, he received the nickname of Masaccio^
nof 6h~accburif of his bad disposition, for he was good-
nature itself, and was always ready to render others a

service, hujt^ because of this excessive negligencj??*

Vasari's statement is borne out by Masaccio's income-
tax return of 1427, in which he describes himself and
his younger brother Giovanni, also a painter by pro-
fession, as living in Florence with their widowed mother.

/■

90 MASACCIO ti40i-

in a house for which they pay a rent of ten florins.
Tommaso is twenty-five, Giovanni twenty, and their
mother forty-five years of age. Their whole fortune is
returned as six soldi, while their liabilities are described
as numerous and heavy. Tommaso pays two florins a.
year for a shop which he rents with another artist
from the Badia of Florence, and owes 102 lire to the
painter Niccol6 di Lapo, six florins to the gold-beater,
Piero, and six florins to his assistant Andrea di Giusto.
Besides which four florins are due to the brokers at
the sign of the " Lion and the Cow," for goods pawned
at different times. The painter's mother ought to
receive a dowry of 100 florins a year, as well as the
produce of a vineyard belonging to a house at
Castel San Giovanni, from the heirs of her second
husband ; but neither the amount of the rent, nor
the sum of the vineyard can be declared, since her
sons are ignorant of both, and their mother does not
receive the rent, or inhabit the house. Such_was_the
conditions of Masaccio's financial affairs -at- -d— time
when he was the foremost painter of his agg».and .had
probably just finished the frescoes of th& <3ar«Hne.
Yet he had rapidly risen to fame, and his talent had
been soon recognised^ In 142 1,. he matriculated' in
the Painters' Guild, two years before his master
lyEasolino, and, in I424yh£ joined the Company of St.
Luke* By this time he was already employed as
Masolino's assistant in the Brancacci Chapel, and
when in the following year that master went to
Hungary, was left to finish the work alone. The close
friendship which bound him to Brunellesco and
Donatello was productive of great and enduring
results, and his one aim was to apply their principles

I

'428] HIS STYLE 91

to painting. « FxQm the first/' saj^sJVasart"!^^^
tl^^at painting IS nothing else but the simple imitation I
of natural objects in drawing and colour, and by un- 1
^^^a^ied studj he overca^ thiTdlfficulSes" and im- \
perfections of art. ^.^e was the first to^giye hjs figures 1

©beautiful atMtiide^-iiatural^ movemenl^^ivadty of^exr I
pression, and a^^elief similar to reality. Instead of ■
representing figures standi^gjmJiptQe,^as his prer^ .

decessors had done, he placed their feet firmly on the' ^

ground and foreshortehed' them properly, and he ^ \C,

Understood perspective so v^eJl that he could apply ^i^^^"^'

ii to every variety of view.'^^^e was careful to make
the colour of his draperies agree with the tones of his"^
flesh, and gave them the same few and simple folds
that we see in nature. And it may he^tmly said that
the things that were done before his time can be^
called paintings, but that his works are life, truth and'
nature."

But with this new realism Masaccio combined a
^ii^Siatksenjg^a.iediiig^^.i^
coacsption j^orthy_of ^,Qq1^^ 4^ ^^

preseaca. of these jQfl^4ualitiesU;Qg^^^^
wonderful advance in^ scientific knowledge, in per-
spective and chiafSTcurO^aTmaE^the^ of
th^ Brancacci Chap^L^ epoch. in^art. The first fresco
of the series was th^^all of Man, which adorns the
pilaster at the entrance of the chapel, and, as might
be expected, is the most in Masolino's style. Indeed
the face^ of Eve and the action of the hands are so
exactly in that master's manner, that we are inclined
to think the original design was by his hand, as may
well be the case. But even here there is more round-
ness, and solid relief than in any of the Castiglione

9* MASACCIO [1401-

frescoes, and the execution seems to be that of his
pupil. The same type of head appears again in the
small subject c^S'eter "Preaching, but the broad. and
single folds of the drapery and the admirable distribu-
tion of light and shade are more in Masaccio's-style.
The scholar, it is clear, gains confidence at every step,
and in the third fresco he rises to new heights and
reveals himself as a strong and independent master.
This large subject, which includes th^Mealing of Jthe
Cripple. at Jthe Beautiful Gate of the Temple^^and the
Raising of Tabitha, has a dignity and beauty of com-
position to which Masolino never attained. The two
Florentine youths, it is true, closely resemble Salome's
supporters in the Baptistery paintings, of which they
were probably the prototypes, but these pictures are
more natural and animated, and the atmospheric per-
spective of the Piazza and distant houses is superior
to anything in the Castiglione frescoes. We recognise
Masaccio's hand in the deep-set eyes and ample
brows of St. Peter and St. John, and in the^neli&ct
of chiaroscuro, which help to render the waking of
Tabitha to life so impressive:. » It is, we irepeat,TftP~
possible to suppose that Masolino painted this noble
composition after the Castiglione frescoes, which, with
all their naive charm and sincerity, are distinctly
Giottesque and archaic in character.

There is, however, a marked change in Masaccio's
next frescoes, which were probably painted at a later
period. During the interval the young artist may
have been engaged on some of the many works"
which he executed in churches of Florence and
Pisa. The great -ISt^Paul which he painted on the
wall near the belfry of the Carmine, perished long

1428] FRESCO OF THE TRINITY 93

ago, and so too has the wonderful chiaroscuro picture
of the consecration of the church, in which he intro-
duced portraits of his friends Donatello and Brunel-
lesco, his master Masolino, Giovanni de' Medici, and
many other Florentines. One of the few still in exist-
ence is the Madonna and St. Anne, in the Accademia,
an altar-piece of early date, which has still much in
common with Masolino, but which is too finely
modelled for any doubt to have been entertained
as to its authorship. Another work, which deserves
the high praise bestowed upon it by Vasari, is the
fresco of the Trinity on the entrance wall of Santa
Maria Novella. This magnificent work was long
hidden by a picture of Vasari's own painting, which
has now been removed, and can only be properly seen
when the great central doors of the church are thrown
open. A majestic God the Father bearing the Cross
on which Christ hangs, with the dove hovering about
his head, while the Virgin, an elderly matron of noble
aspect, and a youthful St. John gaze in deep, calm
sorrow on their dying Lord. Tiie form of^jhe Cruci-
fied. Christ is drawn with all Doiiatelk^sZikiir"and
science, while the "Corinthian pillars and stately
propoFtions of the classical architecture which frames
in the whole, heightens the solemn effect of the vision,
and two admirable portraits of the kneeling donors,
a middle-aged man and woman of the higher class,
are introduced in the foreground.

Some fragments of the altar-piece which Masaccio
painted for the Church of the Carmine at Pisa, in
1427, are still in existence. A St. Andrew, with
deep-set eyes and high forehead, like the Apostles
in the Brancacci Chapel, is in a private collection

94 MASACCIO [1401.

at Vienna, while the Berlin Museum has acquired
the predella of the Adoration of the Magi and Martyr-
dom of St. Peter and St. John the Baptist, a set of
little pictures of great interest as examples of the
painter's more fanciful and imaginative treatment.
In the same lighter and more humorous vein is
another small panel at Berlin, one of the painted
birth-plates, or desco da parto^ which it was the fashion
to send with fruits and cakes and other presents to
Florentine mothers on the birth of a child. The
happy mother is seen lying in bed, attended by a
sour-looking old nurse, while two servants are seen
arriving in the courtyard with a birth-plate and
gifts in their hands, and two young heralds, blowing
trumpets and bearing the lilies of Florence on their
banner, announce the arrival of some visitor of im-
portance. It is a delightful little bit of genre
painting, in which Masaccio displays his skill in
chiaroscuro and perspective, in one of those cleverly
sketched interiors of which Vasari speaks, and at the
same time excites our admiration by the " vivacity "
of his heads and " beautiful alacrity of gesture and
expression." And it acquires additional interest
from the fact that a desco da parto is mentioned
in Lorenzo de' Medici's inventory as being the
work of Masaccio.

But we must turn to the six frescoes, which
Masaccio executed during the last years of his
life, in the Brancacci Chapel, and which are univer-
sally recognised to be his work. On the left pilaster
at the entrance he painted the Expulsion from
Paradise as a companion picture to the Fall of
Adam and Eve, on the opposite wall. The extra-

THE EXPULSION FROM PARADISE.

(BRANCACCI chapel) — MASACCIO

\To face page 94

«

1

1428] ADAM AND EVE 95

ordinary progress made by the artist during the
interval which had elapsed since he finished the
first subject, is apparent to all. Then he was the
young and inexperienced student, carrying out his
master's ideas, and only timidly venturing on innova-
tions and improvements of his own. Now he had
mastered the problems of anatomy and perspective,
and was able to give complete expression to his
dreams. It is a strangely moving scene, this picture
of our first parents driven out of Eden, and dragging
their weary limbs along under the burden of their
despair, while the stern Angel hovers above with
bared sword, and points to the wide and desolate
world before them. The nude forms are drawn with
easy mastery, and the contrast between the passionate
wail of the woman and silent despair of the man is
nobly conceived and finely rendered. No wondet
Raphael was fascinated by the sight, and when he
came to illustrate the same story in the Vatican
Loggia, could find no better or more satisfying con-
ception than this which Masaccio had imagined eighty
years before.

The smaller frescoes on the altar and wall represent
St. Peter and St. John distributing alms and healing
the sick, and St. Peter baptizing. Here the con-
sciousness of a divine mission is suggested in the
majestic bearing of the Apostle, who moves among
the lame and halt, healing them by the passing of
his shadow, without even reaching out his hand.
Unlike the later Giotteschi, Masaccio never intro-
duces a single superfluous figure in his compositions
but, as in Giotto's works, each actor plays an impor-
tant part in the development of the action. The

96 MASACCIO " [1401-

poor mother and child begging for alms, in the one
subject, the lame beggar in the other, the famous
shivering youth standing on the brink of Jordan,
and the still finer figure of the boy who kneels to
receive baptism, are admirable examples of successful
realism. The difficult perspective of the steep street
in the background of St. Peter giving alms, is not
quite correctly rendered, but is interesting as a proof
of the artist's eagerness to grapple with new problems,
even when they were beyond his grasp. On the
other hand, the hilly landscape on the banks ot
Jordan is charmingly painted, and shows his accuracy
of observation and genuine delight in natural beauty.
These qualities are still further developed in the large
fresco of the Tribute Money, on the left-hand wall,
which Vasari justly pronounced to be Masaccio's
master-piece. Here we see the great painter in the
fulness of his powers. Three separate scenes are
introduced, but are happily combined by the skilful
management of the architecture and the beautiful
landscape which forms the setting of the picture.
The chief incident, St. Peter's dispute with the tax-
gatherer and appeal to Christ, occupies the centre,
while the minor incidents of Peter taking the coin
from the mouth of the fish, and delivering it to the
collector, are kept in the background, and not allowed
to interfere with the main subject. Nothing can
exceed the dramatic force with which the story is
told. The eager insistence with which the tax-
collector urges his claim, the indignation of Peter
and the surprise of the Apostles at the command
of Christ, are all vividly painted. Equally striking
is the action of Peter as, his face flushed with the

1428] THE TRIBUTE MONEY 97

exertion, he takes the coin from the mouth of the
fish, and the air of mingled dignity and contempt
with which he hands the money to the extortionate
official. The superb modelling of the heads, the
admirable foreshortening of the figures, and the
skilful distribution of light and shade all excite our
admiration. But the finest thing in the picture is
the calm and majestic form of Christ, and the quiet
authority of his manner, as with outstretched arms
he turns to Peter and utters his word of command.
Few figures in Italian art have ever rivalled this
conception, and when in his cartoons Raphael had
a similar scene to represent, he went back to Masaccio
once more for his inspiration.

Masaccio had already introduced his master /
Masolino's portrait in the fresco of the Apostle Healing /
the Sick, and now he painted his own likeness in the
young apostle standing next to the portico on the
right of the tax-gatherer, " a form so life-like," says
Vasari, " that it seems to live and breathe."

The last subject of the series is the Raising of the
King's Son, a miracle recorded in the Golden Legend.
The scene is laid in the court of the king's palace at
Antioch, and St. Paul is in the act of bidding the dead
child arise, in the presence of his father Theophilus,
who is seated on his throne. Masaccio left this fresco
unfinished, and the group of spectators on the left was
chiefly painted by Filippino sixty years later ; but we
recognise Masaccio's hand in the central portion of
the subject, and the figure of St. Peter receiving the
homage of the king and his courtiers, as related in the
Golden Legend. The design of the whole composition
is evidently due to him, and the skill with which he

G

98 MASACCIO Lhoi-

has kept the two subjects apart by throwing a strong
light on the enthroned Apostle and keeping the scene
of the miracle in shadow, is very characteristic.

In spite of his distinguished friends and growing
fame, the painter of the Brancacci Chapel, we are told
by Vasari, was ill at ease in Florence, a fact which is
hardly surprising if we remember the state of his
affairs towards the end of 1427. Whether his creditors
became more pressing, or whether he was fired by a
sudden wish to see the wonders of the Eternal City,
from which his friend Brunellesco had lately returned,
he broke off his work abruptly, and left Florence early
in the following year. After that we hear no more of
him, and all we have is the brief entry under his name,
in the register of 1429. ''^ Dicesi morto a Roma^' —
" He is said to have died in Rome." The statement is
confirmed by the income-tax return of his old creditor
Niccol6 di Lapo, from which we learn that in 1430, the
heirs of Tommaso di San Giovanni still owed him sixty-
eight florins, but that since the painter died in Rome
and left nothing to his brother, the debt is not likely to
be recovered. Both Vasari and Landini, who wrote in
148 1, say that Masaccio died at the age of twenty-
six, and a contemporary, Antonio Manetti, notes down
a remark made by the painter's brother, who told him
that Masaccio was born on the Feast of St. Thomas
1401, and died when he was about twenty -seven.
He had been little known and little honoured in his
life, but after his death all men remembered him.
Brunellesco wept bitterly for his friend, and lamented
the grievous loss which art had suffered in his prema-
ture end. ' " And the most celebrated painters and
sculptors," writes Vasari, " became excellent and

1428] HIS PLACE IN ART 99

famous by studying the frescoes of the Brancacci
Chapel ; and not only Florentines, but foreigners from
other lands and cities came there to learn the
principles of their art." * So that it may truly be said
of Masaccio, that he stands half-way between Giotto
and Raphael, and was the heir of one, and the teacher
of the other great master.

Chief Works—

Florence, — Accademia : *]">,. Madonna and Child with
St. Anne.
„ Carmine: Brancacci Chapel: Frescoes —
Fall of Adam and Eve, Expulsion
from Paradise, St. Peter Preaching,
Raising of Tabitha, St. Peter and
St. John Healing the Sick with their
Shadows, Distributing Alms, St. Peter
Baptising, Raising of the King's Son
(in part).
,, S. Maria Novella : Fresco — Trinity,
Madonna, St. John, and Donors.
Berlin. — Gallery: 58A. Adoration of Magi; 58B.
Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. John ;
58c. A Birth-Plate ; 580. Four Saints.
Pisa, — Gallery: Sala VI.: 27. St. Paul (formerly

in Butler Collection).
Naples. — Crucifixion.

Vienna. — Count Lanckoronski : St. Andrew.
Boston^ U.S.A. — Mrs J. L. Gardner: Portrait of

Young Man.
Brant - Broughton^ Newark. — Rev. A. Sutton '
Madonna and Cliild, with four Angels.

VI

FRA ANGELICO

1387-1455

The revived study of antiquity which had taken so
deep a root in Florence, soon began to exert its in-
fluence upon the development of painting ; but during
the first half of the fifteenth century, Christian tradi-
tions remained supreme in art, modified as they were
by the closer study of nature and broader conceptions
of human life that prevailed. Even the Platonic
philosophy, which found so congenial a home among
the humanists of the Medici's immediate circle, tended
towards Christian idealism, and men like Marsilio
Ficino and Pico della Mirandola were at pains to
prove that the doctrines of Christ and Plato were one
and the same. With all their love of pleasure, the
Florentines were essentially a serious, deep-thinking
race ; and never were ideas more freely expressed in
art, never were sculptors and painters more profoundly
influenced by religious motives, than at this period.
The expression of thought and emotion, rather than
perfection of form, was Donatello's aim, and the purest
spiritual feeling animated Luca della Robbia's art.
Above all, it was in the work of a contemporary painter
and a protegi of the Medici, the Dominican artist, Fra

Angelico, that the deepest mysteries and highest
100

I387-I4SS] VASARI'S DESCRIPTION loi

aspirations of Christian truth found their most com-
plete and beautiful expression.

All the mystic thought of the mediaeval world, the
passionate love of God and man that beat in the
heart of St. Francis, the yearnings of Dante's soul after
a higher and more perfect order, the poetic dreams of
the monks who sang of the Celestial Country, are
embodied in the art of Angelico. The depth and
sincerity of his own religious feeling lent wings to his
imagination, and the exquisite purity of his soul
breathes in every line of his painting. It is the in-
tensity of his own love and sorrow that weeps with
Dominic at the foot of the Cross, or gazes with Francis
in unspeakable longing on his dying Lord : it
is his own sweet and gentle fancy that brings
down these enchanted visions of Paradise. Vasari's
eloquent language shows how profound was the im-
pression made upon his age by this friar, whose
saintly life was reflected in his works, and whose
simple and child-like faith supplied the inspiration of
his art.

"This truly angelic father spent his whole life in the
service of God and his fellow-creatures. He was a man
of simple habits, and most saintly in all his ways. He kept
himself from all worldliness, and was so good a friend to the
poor that I think his soul must be already in heaven. He
worked continually at his art, but would never paint anything
excepting sacred subjects. He might have been a wealthy
man, but he did not care for money, and used to say that
true riches consist in being content with little. He might
have enjoyed high dignities, both in his convent and in the
world, but he cared nothing for these things, saying that he
who would practise painting has need of quiet, and should

102 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

be free from worldly cares, and that he who would do the
work of Christ must live continually with him. He was
never known to be impatient with the brothers — a thing to
me almost incredible ! and when people asked him for a
picture, always replied that with the Prior's approval he
would try and satisfy their wishes. He never corrected or
re-touched his works, but left them as he first painted them,
saying that such was the will of God. He never took his
pencil up without a prayer, and could not paint a Crucifixion
without the tears running down his cheeks. And the saints \
which he painted are more like saints in face and expression \
than those of any other master. And since it seemed that | ,
saints and angels of beauty so divine could only be painted i
by the hand of an angel, he was always called Fra |
Angelico." "

But although this angelic painter — Angelicus Pictor^
as he is termed by a Prior of Santa Maria Novella,
who wrote in his life-time — was in sympathy with many
forms of mediaeval thought, it would be a mistake
to suppose that he was a reactionary who carried
on Giottesque traditions into the fifteenth century.
When he entered the Dominican Order, at twenty, he
had already served his apprenticeship in Stamina's
shop, and had been closely associated with the leaders
of the new movement. The sculptor Nanni di
Banco, the precursor of Donatello and assistant of
Brunellesco, was his intimate friend, and through him
the young painter must early have been familiar with
the aims and ideas of these men. At the same time
he was brought into contact with Lorenzo Monaco,
whose methods of colouring he adopted, and whose
example may have decided him to enter the cloister.

Fra Angelico was born in 1387, at Vicchio, in Val

USSl WORKS AT CORTONA 103

Mugello, not far from Giotto's home. His real name
was Guido, but when, in 1407, he took the vows and
entered the convent of Fiesole, he became known as
Fra Giovanni. His younger brother Benedetto, who
joined the Dominican Order on the same day, was
not an artist but a skilled penman, who wrote out
chaunts and services in the Office-books of the
convent, and was Prior of San Marco when he died
in 1448. The two brothers were sent to spend their
noviciate at the Dominican house of Cortona. Here
they were joined a year later by the whole community,
who left Fiesole by night, and remained in exile
during the next ten years, rather than acknowledge
the schismatic Pope Alexander V., whose claims were
supported by the Signory of Florence. During these
ten years Fra Angelico painted a series of frescoes in
the convent at Cortona, which were destroyed during
the French occupation, as well as several altar-pieces.
Three of these are still in existence : a Madonna and
Saints, and a delicately coloured predella of the
miracles of St. Nicholas at Perugia, another Madonna
in S. Domenico, and the Annunciation in the Gesu at
Cortona. In these Angelico shows himself to be the
ablest and most advanced of all Stamina's scholars.
The perspective of his buildings and the proportions
of his figures are decidedly better than those of
Masolino's Castiglione frescoes, while the shimmering
gold of his glories and the decorative splendour of his
draperies recall Lorenzo Monaco. Both of these
monastic painters are remarkable for the brilliancy of
their colour and extraordinary richness of their
gilding. They gave their best to God, and spared
neither time nor pains to make their offering worthy

I04 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

of the sacrifice. In this Annunciation, Angelico's first
version of his favourite subject, the Angel's wings are
gold tipped with ruby light, and his robe is a marvel
of decorative beauty, studded all over with little
tongues of flame, and embroidered with mystic
patterns. Like the Camaldoli friar, he had a genuine
love of nature, and beyond the graceful columns of
the classic portico where Gabriel alights and the
startled Virgin drops her book, we see the ripe pome-
granates hanging on the trees, and the pinks and
roses flowering in the grass, while a view of Lake
Thrasymene, as seen from Cortona, is introduced in
the Visitation of the predella. Although during these
ten years Angelico was away from Florence, and
could not profit by the rapid advance that was
being daily made by artists in every direction, it
is clear that he had already assimilated many of the
new ideas of the Quattrocento, and stood in the front
rank of living masters.

In 141 8, the papal schism was ended by the election
of Martin V., and the Dominicans returned to their
old home at the foot of the hill of Fiesole. From that
time Fra Angelico worked with untiring industry at
his art, and painted most of the altar-pieces which
have made his name famous for the churches and con-
vents of Florence. A ruined fresco of the Crucifixion
and a Madonna, partly restored by Lorenzo di Credi,
are the only fragments of his work now to be seen at
S. Domenico of Fiesole; but the lovely predella of
Christ in Glory formerly attached to this picture, now
hangs in the National Gallery, and the Coronation,
which hung over a side altar in the convent church, is
one of the glories of the Louvre. In this last-named

flight of steps leading up to the throne of Christ {\J
heightens the solemnity of the imposing ceremonial,

1455] CORONATION OF THE LOUVRE 105

work Angelico has lavished the richest ornament and

the most radiant colour on the angels who stand before

the throne, each with a spark of fire on his forehead . n^

and glittering stars on his purple wings. The broad Va^^

and the long sweep of the Virgin's flowing mantle ^ <- ^

gives an air of youthful charm and lovely humility to ^" . ^h

her kneeling form. Foremost among the hosts of
the blessed are St. Louis, with crown and fleur-de-lis,
St. Thomas Aquinas, with rays of light issuing from !
his book, St. Dominic, with the star on his brow and
the lily in his hand, fixing his eyes in adoring love on
the face of Mary ; and on the right a group of virgin-
martyrs — Agnes with her white lamb, Katharine with j
her wheel, and Magdalen in red robes, with long •
yellow locks, and the vase of precious ointment in hei
hand. " So, and no otherwise, do the blessed saints
appear," exclaims Vasari, in his enthusiasm, "could
we see them in their place in Heaven ! But the
expression on their faces and the colour of their robes
could only be painted by a saint or angel like them-
selves ! " The employment of flat tones and pure
colour, the absence of shadow and lavish use of gold
with which Angelico seeks to represent the glories of
heaven, give the picture a primitive air ; but the care-
fully thought-out space-construction and structure of
the figures show a degree of scientific knowledge little
inferior to Masaccio's own. Another smaller, but
hardly less beautiful. Coronation was painted by Fra
Angelico for the hospital of S. Maria Nuova — an
institution closely connected with the Dominicans of
San Marco — and is now in the Uflizi. Here we have

io6 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

the same bright seraphin, with flower-like faces and
rainbow wings, the same shadowless draperies and
glories of burnished gold. But the Madonna is
throned at her Son's side in a blaze of light, and
angels dance on the rosy clouds, and swing censers or
play the harp and organ at her feet.

Another subject which Fra Angelico often repeated
was the Last Judgment. One version which he painted
for Lorenzo Monaco's convent of the Angeli is now in
the Accademia ; another passed from the collection of
Cardinal Fesch into that of Lord Dudley, and is now
at Berlin. These pictures show at once the limita-
tions and the rare qualities of the saintly Dominican's
art. The passions and emotions of ordinary humanity
lay beyond the guarded precincts of convent life and
stirred no interest in his breast. He would have had
no compassion for Francesca's sorrow or Paolo's love,
and his rendering of the solemn Dies Irae, with the
grotesque little demons dragging sinners down to
hell-fires, fails to inspire us with either pity or terror.
But Dante's dream of the happy spirits who circle
hand in hand on the flowery meadows of Paradise
has never been more perfectly realised than in
Angelico's pictures. This is the Urbs beata of the
mediaeval poet's song, the heavenly Jerusalem where
the walls are made of jasper, and the light streams
from the golden gates. There the leaf never withers
and the flowers never fade. There none are sick and
none are sad. The mourner's tears are dried, and the
lost and loved are found again. There friends long
parted clasp hands once more, and angels welcome
holy souls to their embrace ; while lilies and roses,
daisies and bluebells, blossom in the shining grass,

I4S5] HIS ANGELS 107

and in the words of the Franciscan poet, Jacopone da
Todi : " Tutti danzan per amoreP

Yet more famous is the Tabernacle which
Angelico painted in 1433, for the Guild of
Linen Merchants. The colossal Virgin and Child
in the central panel were ill-suited to his style
of art, and lack the inspired grandeur of Giotto or
Orcagna, but the twelve seraphs playing lute and
viol, or sounding trumpets and cymbals on the wings,
are among his most popular creations. Even here,
however, he is less at home than in his smaller
works, such as the reliquaries with Madonnas and
Annunciations which he painted for Santa Maria
Novella, and which are now preserved in San Marco.
The same charming fancy and jewel-like finish
mark the predellas which he executed, such as the
Sposalizio and Death of the Virgin, in the Uffizi, or
the Christ in Glory of the National Gallery. Even
when the theme is one of death and bloodshed, he
tells the tale with such naXve sincerity and rare
beauty of expression, that we forget the horror of
the scene, and only realise the martyr's triumph. In
his Death of St. Mark, in the Accademia, or Beheading
of Cosimo and Damiano, in the Louvre, he enlivens
the subject with picturesque details of costume or
architecture, and introduces tall cypresses and castel-
lated walls on the green hillside behind the executioner,
in the act of swinging his sword to strike off the Saint's
head. In his lovely picture of the Meeting of Francis
and Dominic, at Berlin, Angelico has, by a happy
inspiration, placed the scene in front of the church
of Assisi, and introduced the fair Tiber valley and
steep ridge of Monte Subasio in the distance. No

io8 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

doubt these regions were familiar to him during the
years that he spent at Cortona, and, although a friar
of the rival Order, no painter had a deeper reverence
for St. Francis, or was inspired with a larger share
of his tender love and glowing devotion than Fra
Angelico. The frequent repetition on these small
panels of the story of Cosimo and Damiano is
explained by the fact that these Saints were patrons
of the Medici family, whose chief representative,
Cosimo, had been one of Fra Giovanni's earliest
patrons. After his return from exile in 1434, one
of Cosimo de' Medici's first acts was to obtain the
convent of San Marco for the Dominicans of Fiesole,
and to employ his favourite architect, Michelozzo, to
rebuild this ancient house of the Silvestrine monks.
In 1436, the friars took possession of their new home,
and Fra Angelico began the great work of his life,
the decoration of the convent-walls.

The Chapter-house contains the large Crucifixion
which, in spite of the injuries it has suffered, and
of the total disappearance of the once blue sky,
is still one of the most impressive pictures in the
world. The death of Christ on the Cross is here
represented, not as an historical event, but as a sacred
mystery for the devout contemplation of the Chris-
tian believer, and the favourite Florentine Saints and
founders of religious orders are introduced among
the spectators. On the left we have first the tradi-
tional group of the fainting Virgin, supported by the
Maries and St. John ; then the Baptist and St. Mark,
the protectors of the city and convent, and Cosimo
and Damiano, the patrons of the Medici. On the
right, Dominic kneels with outstretched arms at the

1455] FRESCOES IN SAN MARCO 109

foot of the Cross, and St. Zenobius, St. Jerome, St.
Ambrose, St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Bernard, S.
Giovanni Gualberto, the founder of Vallombrosa, S.
Romualdo the hermit, and St. Thomas Aquinas and
S. Pietro Martire, stand or kneel in different attitudes
of adoration. There is no attempt at dramatic repre-
sentation, but every phase of devotion is set forth
with Angelico's habitual mastery of expression, and
the silent passion of love and yearning in the eyes
of Francis is finely contrasted with S. Damiano's
uncontrollable burst of anguish. In the venerable
form of S. Cosimo, clad in deacon's dalmatic, we recog-
nise the portrait of Angelico's friend, the sculptor
Nanni di Banco, who had died nearly twenty years
before.

In the cloisters, Fra Angelico painted smaller
frescoes of the chief Dominican Saints, and above
the Forestiera, where travellers were entertained, he
set a beautiful lunette of Christ, the yellow-haired
Stranger, with pilgrim's staff and goat-skin, being
welcomed by two Dominican brothers, with the
inscription : " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me." The cells on the upper floor, formerly
occupied by the monks, are decorated with sacred
subjects, chiefly scenes from the life of Christ,
intended to assist the devout meditation of the
brothers. Many of these were hastily painted, and
some are executed by the hand of inferior assistants,
while all are badly injured ; but they still retain a
great measure of Angelico's peculiar charm. The
study of the nude was unknown to him, and in
knowledge of the human form he remains far behind

no FRA ANGELICO [1387-

Masaccio ; but his quick perception and inborn sense
of beauty of line to a great extent supply the lack of
actual knowledge, while his elevation of thought and
rare powers of expression are never absent. In the
corridor at the head of the stairs is a fresco of the
Annunciation, with a Latin inscription inviting all
passers-by to say an Ave to the Blessed Mother,
Here the slender Corinthian columns of the open
loggia were evidently suggested by Michelozzo's
newly-built portico of the Annunziata Church, and
through the graceful arches we look out on the
convent garden, with daisies in the grass and rose-
bushes and tall cypresses behind its wooden paling.
The Angel stands with outspread wings as if but
just alighted on the ground, and fixes his eyes
intently on the Virgin's face as he delivers his
message. His pink robe is edged with gold, and
the feathers of his wings are delicately tinted with
soft hues of rose and violet, green and yellow. Mary,
draped in a long blue mantle and white robe, and
seated on a rough wooden stool, folds her hands
meekly on her breast, and looks up with sudden awe
and wonder at the heavenly messenger. Yet another
Annunciation of rare beauty and deep spiritual mean-
ing may be seen in one of the cells on this floor.
Here we have neither loggia nor garden, only the
bare walls of the cell, while the white-robed Angel
stands erect on the threshold, and the Virgin bending
in lowly self-oblation, as if offering her whole being
in glad obedience to his word. In the scenes of the
Childhood and Ministry, the traditional type is
generally followed, with a few variations prompted
by the painter's tender feeling, A large Adoration

^■0

^

I4SS] FRESCOES IN SAN MARCO iii

of the Magi, with horses and camels in the procession,
adorns the cell reserved by Cosimo de' Medici for his
private use, in order that the great ruler might have
this example of the Eastern Kings laying down their
crowns at the manger of Bethlehem constantly be-
fore his eyes. The Virgin, to whom the Dominican
Order paid especial devotion, is introduced in most
of the scenes, while St. Dominic is often seen in the
corner, devoutly meditating on the Christian mysteries
set forth in the picture. The luminous clouds which
encircle the form of the newly-baptised Christ deepen
the significance of the event, and the lofty stature and
outstretched arms of the Master lifted high above the
mount, lend a new and impressive meaning to the
Apostles' Vision of the Transfiguration. In the
Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, Fra Angelico
departs from the Giottesque tradition of the Last
Supper, and adopts an old Byzantine form, rarely
seen in Italian art, to which he gives a solemn pathos
and beauty of the highest spiritual order. In the
Agony, Martha and Mary are watching and praying
in Gethsemane, while the Apostles slumber, and in
the Mocking and Crowning with Thorns, only the
hands of the soldiers are seen, while Dominic and
the Virgin are introduced in the foreground. The
rush of the spirits in prison to meet their deliverer
in his Descent into Hades is rendered with a power
and movement to which Angelico does not often
attain, while the story of the Resurrection has seldom
been more simply and touchingly told than in this
picture of the white-robed Angel pointing heaven-
wards, as he tells the mournful Maries that their Lord
is risen, and in the dim twilight of the Easter morning

I

112 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

the Christ is seen floating upwards with the flag of
victory in his hand.

The great advance that marks these frescoes,
both in conception and execution, is still more
apparent in the noble altar-piece of the Descent
from the Cross, which Angelico painted about the
year 1440, for the Church of the Trinity. Here the
fine drawing of the dead Christ, and the difficult
foreshortening of the disciples who lower the body
from the Cross, show how much the painter had
learnt from the attentive study of Masaccio's works ;

pand sadly as the harmony of the colour has been
marred by restoration, nothing can impair the beauty

. of the conception — the reverent tenderness of the
disciples, or the deep repose of the dead Christ, with

_the words, " Corona glories" inscribed above his brow.
As usual in Angelico's pictures, the scene of suffering
and death is surrounded with loveliness. Bright
flowers spring up in the grass at the foot of the
Cross, glittering seraphs hover in the air, and between
the tall pines and cypresses we see, on one side, the
towers and battlements of Florence, on the other,
the green slopes and wooded hills of Vallombrosa,
in the rich glow of the evening light. The portrait
of Angelico's friend, Michelozzo, the architect of
San Marco, may be recognized in the middle-aged
man in the black cap, seated on a step of the ladder ;
and the pilasters of the richly-carved frame are de-
corated with exquisitely-painted figures of Dominican
and Vallombrosan saints. But the three paintings of
Resurrection subjects on the Gothic pinnacles in the
upper part are the work of Lorenzo Monaco, who
died long before the picture was painted, and were

1455] VISIT TO ROME 113

evidently fitted on to the frame at some later
period.

All of these works must have been finished by the
end of 1446, when Pope Eugenius IV. — who had
visited Florence, and stayed at San Marco for the
dedication of the convent, four years before — sum-
moned Fra Angelico to Rome, to paint a chapel
in St. Peter's. Shortly before he left Florence, the
painter probably began the interesting series of small
panels for the presses of the altar-plate in a chapel,
endowed by Cosimo's son, Piero de' Medici, in the
Annunziata, in the year 1448. These charming
little pictures of the life of Christ, so original in
their conception, so full of quaint and picturesque
touches, were only partly executed by Angelico,
and the hand of many different scholars and
assistants may be traced in the later subjects,
while three panels were certainly the work of
Alesso Baldovinetti.

Soon after Fra Angelico's arrival in Rome, the
Pope died, but his successor, Nicholas V., who had
held the office of librarian to Cosimo de' Medici,
induced the painter to continue his work, and the
Vatican records contain an entry of payments made,
in May 1447, to Fra Giovanni of Florence, at the rate
of 200 gold ducats a year, for work in a chapel of St.
Peter's, executed by him and his assistant, Benozzo,
together with four other artists, since the 13th of
March. By June the decoration of the chapel was
completed, and Fra Angelico accepted an invitation
from the Directors of the Cathedral works at Orvieto,
to spend the summer months in that city, and paint
the newly-erected Chapel of S. Brizio. For this he

H

114 FRA ANGELICO [1387-

was to receive a salary of 200 ducats, seven ducats a
month for his assistant Benozzo, and three ducats each
for his apprentices, as well as lodging, bread and
wine, and the cost of scaffolding and colour. In
fulfilment of this contract, Angelico remained at
Orvieto till the 28th of September, and, with Benozzo's
help, painted the groups of prophets and Christ in
Glory on the triangular compartments of the chapel
roof Then he returned to Rome, where he spent the
next three years in decorating the Pope's Oratory (or
Studio, as it is called in the Vatican records), with
scenes from the life of St. Stephen and of St. Laurence.
These frescoes, which Fra Angelico painted when he
was over sixty, reveal an extraordinary advance, not
only in technical skill, chiaroscuro and modelling,
but in freedom and dramatic power. The sight of
the Eternal City, and the fresh experiences of these
last years, had given the friar of San Marco a wider
vision and more intimate knowledge of humanity
than he had ever known before. The women and
children who sit at the feet of Stephen, and listen
to his impassioned words, the sick and lame who
beg alms of Laurence, and the boys struggling play-
fully over the coins, have the old grace and charm,
together with a life and animation that are altogether
new. The classical details of the architecture, the
stately columns and sculptured frieze, the statues
and mouldings of the cornices, all bear witness to
a close study of the antique models which Rome
supplied in such abundance ; while the landscape
background of the Stoning of Stephen is an evident
recollection of the hill country round Cortona, those
familiar scenes of the Dominican master's youth,

»45S] PRIOR OF FIESOLE 115

which he had seen again on his way from Florence.
Still more remarkable is the variety of type and
individual character in these closing scenes of the
Trial and Death of Stephen and Execution of
Laurence. The bitter hatred on the faces of the
Pharisees, the puzzled and suspicious look of the
high priest, the curiosity of the spectators and
indifference of the Roman soldiers, are all painted
with a sympathy and insight that bring Fra Angelico
before us in an entirely new light

Unfortunately, these frescoes, which reveal the
painter in the fulness of his powers, are the only
works of his in Rome that have escaped destruction.
The chapel which he decorated in the old basilica
of St. Peter's, and the frescoes which he painted in
the Dominican Church and Convent of S. Mari.i
sopra Minerva, have all perished, and this oratory
of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican alone remains
to show that the earlier art of Florence is not
unworthy of a place by Raphael's Stanze.

In 1450, P>a Angelico returned to Florence, and
in the following January became Prior of his old
convent at Fiesole, He was still there in March
1452, when the citizens of Prato begged his friend,
St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, to send the
painter to decorate the choir of their parish church.
Fra Angelico complied with their request, and was
honourably conducted to Prato on the 29th of
March. But at the end of a month he returned
to Florence, and finally declined the commission.
Probably he was recalled to Rome by the imperative
command of the Pope. All we know is, that three
years later, on the i8th of March 1455, he died in

ii6 FRA ANGELICO [1387

Rome, and was buried in S. Maria sopra Minerva,
where Pope Nicholas himself composed the Latin
epitaph on his tomb.

Hic JACET VEN : PicTOR. Fr : Joc. DE Flor. Ord : Pred :

M.CCCC.LV.
Non mihi sit laudi, quod eram velut alter Apelles,

Sed quod lucra tuis omnia, Christe dabam,
Altera nam terris opera extant, altera ccelo ;
Urbs me Joannem flos tulit Etrurise.
** Not mine be the praise if I was another Apelles, but that I gave
all I had to Thy poor, O Christ !

** That city which is the flower of Etruria bore me, Giovanni."

Chief Works—

Florence, — Accademia : 166. Descent from the Cross.
227. Madonna and six Saints.
234-237> 352-254. Panels of Life of

Christ {in part).
240. Madonna.
243, 257, 258. Life of SS. Cosimo and

Damiano.
246. Entombment.

250. Crucifixion,

251. Coronation of the Virgin.

265. Madonna and four Saints.

266. Last Judgment.

281. Madonna and eight Saints.
283. Piet^ and Saints.
(9 Uffizi: 17. Madonna with Angels and Saints, 1433.

1 162. Birth of St. John.
1 178. Sposalizio.
1 184. Death of the Virgin.
1290. Coronation of the Virgin.
„ Museum of S, Marco: Cloisters: Frescoes — St. Peter

Martyr, St. Dominic, St. Thomas Aquinas, Christ
as Pilgrim, Piet^. Chapter-House : Crucifixion and
Saints. Corridor: Annunciation, St. Dominic at
foot of the Cross, Madonna and Saints. Cells : i.
Noli me Tangere ; 2. Entombment ; 3. Annuncia-
tion ; 4. Crucifixion ; 5. Nativity; 6. Transfiguration j

,455] LIST OF WORKS 117

Chief Works {continued) —

Florence. — Museum of S. Marco: Cloisters: Frescoes {con-
tinued)—
7. Ecce Homo ; 8. Resurrection ; 9. Coronation ;
10. Presentation; 11. Madonna and Saints; 15-23,
25) 37» 42, 43. Crucifixion ; 24, Baptism ; 26. Piet^ ;
28. Christ bearing the Cross ; 31. Descent into Hades;
32. Sermon on the Mount ; 33. Betrayal of Judas ; 34.
Agony in Gethsemane ; 35. Institution of the Blessed
Sacrament ; 36. Nailing to the Cross ; 38. Adoration
of the Magi and PietJl.
„ S. Domenico of Fiesole: Madonna and Saints, Fresco of
Crucifixion.
Cortona. — S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints; Gesii: Annun-
ciation and predella.
Orvieto. — Duomo: Frescoes —Last Judgment, Prophets and

Angels (in part).
Parma. — Gallery: Sala III. : 25. Madonna and Saints.
Perugia. — Gallery: Sala V.: 1-18. Polyptych.
Pisa. — Sala VI. : 7. Salvator Mundi.

Home. — Corsini Gallery: Sala VII: 22. Pentecost: 23. Last
Judgment ; 24. Resurrection.
„ Vatican Gallery: Madonna and predella. Chapel of
Pope Nicholas V.: Frescoes from Life of St. Stephen
and St. Laurence.
Berlin. — Gallery: 60. Madonna and Saints; 60A. Last Judg-
ment; 61. Meeting of SS. Dominic and Francis;
62. Triumph of St. Francis.
Boston^ U.S.A. — Mrs J. L. Gardner : Death and Assumption of

Virgin.
London. — National Gallery : 663. Christ in Glory.
Madrid. — Gallery: 14. Annunciation.
Munich. — Pinacothek: 989-991. Predella, SS. Cosimo and

Damiano ; 992. Entombment.
Oxford. — University Galleries: 5. Madonna and Saints.
Paris. — 1290. Coronation of Virgin.

1293. Martyrdom of SS. Cosimo and Damiano.

1294. Fresco — Crucifixion.

St Petersburg, — Hermitage: 1674. P'resco — Madonna and Saints,

VII
PAOLO UCCELLO

1397-1475

While Fra Angelico was giving expression to the
ideals of a departing age in his paintings, a little
band of Florentines were slowly working out the
development of art on very different lines. The
aim of these artists is set forth by a contemporary
writer, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, in the following
passage : — " I have always followed the study of the
arts with great diligence and order. From my
earliest days I have always tried to discover how
Nature reveals herself in Art, and how I may best
draw near to her ; how forms really present themselves
to the eye, and on what principles the arts of painting
and sculpture should be practised." Foremost among
the painters who devoted themselves to the presenta-
tion of natural objects was Paolo Uccello, the great
student and teacher of linear perspective. Paolo di
Dono was born in 1397, and was the son of a barber-
surgeon of Pratovecchio, in the Casentino, who after-
wards came to live in the quarter of S. Spirito in
Florence. At ten years old Paolo entered the shop of
Lorenzo Ghiberti, and attached himself to the little
group of earnest workers and seekers after knowledge
who numbered Donatello, Brunellesco and Masaccio in
us

I397-I47S] HIS LOVE OF PERSPECTIVE 119

their ranks. With Donatello he was especially in-
timate, and the portrait which he painted of the great
sculptor, together with those of Giotto, Brunellesco,
Antonio Manetti the mathematician, and his own
were seen by Vasari in the house of Giuliano di
Sangallo, and are now in the Louvre. Fired by the
example of these men, Paolo devoted himself with
ardour to the study of perspective, which absorbed his
whole time and thoughts, and became the passion of
his life. He would sit up half the night, studying
rules of perspective and working out problems at his
desk, and when his wife urged him to take a little rest,
would only exclaim : " Oh ! how sweet a thing is per-
spective I " Vasari describes him as a strange, eccentric
being, who would live like a hermit for weeks and
months without speaking to any one, and shrank from
!he sight of his fellow-creatures. Once when he was
painting some frescoes for the Benedictines of San
Miniato he disappeared altogether, and the more the
monks tried to find him, the more persistently he
eluded their search. At length, however, two of the
monks, who were younger than the rest, caught sight
of Paolo in the street, and, running after him, asked
why he had left his work unfinished ; upon which
the shy painter told them that their Abbot had
given him nothing but dishes made of cheese to eat,
and that he felt sure if he stayed in their convent any
longer he should be turned into cheese himself ! The
monks heard his story with peals of laughter, and left
him with many assurances that he should be treated
better in future, if he would only return and finish his
frescoes. The result of this love of solitude and in-
difference to gain, Vasari tells us, was that he remained

I20 PAOLO UCCELLO [1397.

poor and miserable all his life. But this statement is
hardly correct, at least as regards the earlier part of
his career ; for, in 1434, Paolo bought a house in the
Via della Scala for 100 florins, and six years later
rented a shop and owned house-property and lands
in Florence.

Paolo took great delight in painting animals of
all kinds, especially birds, whose flight and move-
ments he studied constantly, and drew so often,
that he acquired the surname of Uccello. For the
Medici he painted many animal subjects, amongst
others, a battle of lions and serpents, which is men-
tioned as one of five large tempera pictures by his
hand in the Magnificent Lorenzo's inventory. Three
of the battle-pieces which were among the treasures
of the Medici Palace are still in existence. As Mr.
Home has lately shown,^ these pictures evidently
represent the defeat of the Sienese at S. Romano
in 1432. The finest and best preserved of the three
is the panel now in the National Gallery. Niccold
da Tolentino, the Captain of the Florentines, mounted
on a galloping white horse, and wearing a crimson
mantle embroidered with gold, is a conspicuous figure
in the melie. The ground at his feet is strewn with
dead corpses and broken lances, while between flash-
ing spears and gleaming helmets we see the blossom-
ing roses and leaves which Paolo loved to paint.
The other two battle-pieces in the Louvre and Uffizi
represent different episodes of the fight, while a
painting of a Midnight Hunt, full of weird charm and
romance, has lately been discovered at Oxford. But
all of these pictures, we feel, are composed chiefly

1 Monthly Review^ v. 14.

1475] EQUESTRIAN STATUE 121

with regard to effects of perspective, and recall
Donatello's words : " Ah ! Paolo, in your passion for
perspective, you are forsaking the substance for the
shadow ! "

In 1425, Paolo went to Venice, and spent seven
years there. Among other works, he designed a
mosaic on the fagade of St. Mark's, and the Signory
of Florence hearing of the reputation which he
had acquired, engaged him, on his return, to paint
an equestrian portrait of the English Captain, John
Hawkwood — commonly known in Italy as Giovanni
Acuto — on the entrance wall of the Duomo. In May
1436, Paolo received the commission to paint this
fresco in terra verde^ with grisaille arabesques and
sarcophagus below, to %\v^ the effect of a sepulchral
monument in bronze. His first attempt failed to
satisfy the Directors of the Duomo Works, but by
August he produced the splendid fresco which has
been of late years transferred to canvas, and still
hangs on the entrance wall to the left of the cathedral
door. The spirited figure of the warrior in his short
cloak and broad hat, with his martial air and high-
stepping horse, is a masterpiece not unworthy to be
compared with the famous equestrian statue of Galta-
melata, which Donatello modelled a few years later.

In 1444, Paolo accompanied his friend Donatello
to Padua, where he spent two years, and painted
some giants, in grisaille, in the hall of the Vitiliani
Palace, which were greatly admired by Mantegna.
After his return to Florence, in 1446, he painted
the noble frescoes of the Creation, the Deluge, and
the Sacrifice of Noah, in the Chiostro Verde of Santa
Maria Novella. Here Paolo shows himself to be a

122 PAOLO UCCELLO [1397.

great and original master. The representation of the
Flood is a striking and dramatic composition, remark-
able not only for the knowledge of anatomy and
foreshortening displayed in the nude figures, but for
the vivid realisation of the scene and of the different
emotions which it arouses. The desperate struggles
of the drowning men and women in the water, the
youth with his soaked garments and wind-blown hair,
clinging to the side of the ark, and the man trying to
keep himself up by the help of a tub, are all wonder-
fully represented ; while the dove flying home across
the waters with the olive-leaf in her beak, brings an
element of peace and hope into the scene of desola-
tion. Equally impressive in its way is the patriarchal
group of Noah's sons and daughters, kneeling round
the altar, in flowing draperies that recall Masaccio's
designs, and the foreshortened figure of God the Father
brooding like a cloud over the scene, with a mystic
grandeur not unworthy of Michel Angelo himself
These works of Paolo Uccello made the Chiostro
Verde a school of drawing little inferior in fame to
the Brancacci Chapel, and there can be no doubt
that both Signorelli and Buonarroti were among the
artists who came to study in the cloisters of Santa
Maria Novella during the next fifty years.

Another admirable work by this artist which has
fortunately been preserved, is the Miracle of the
Host, which Paolo painted for the Confraternity of
Corpus Domini at Urbino, in 1468. He was seventy-
two years of age, but the picture shows no sign of
failing powers. The dramatic tale of the wealthy
Jew's wife who threw the Host into the fire, and the
swift vengeance that overtook the family which had

I47S] AT URBINO 123

been guilty of this act of sacrilege, is told with start-
ling vividness. All the different actors in the story,
the frightened children, the horses and soldiers who
force open the doors of the house, the solemn pro-
cession of priests and magistrates, are represented in
the most life-like manner ; while the skilfully lighted
interior, and the pleasant landscape with its orchards
and gardens along the mountain-side, are reproduced
with a truth and fidelity that make us realise the
marvellous advance which had been effected during
the lifetime of this one master. The presence of
Paolo at Urbino is commemorated by Raphael's father
Giovanni Santi, who gives Uccello a place among the
illustrious painters in his rhyming Chronicle. By the
following year he was back in Florence, where he
describes himself in his income-tax return as old
and ailing and quite unable to work, while his wife,
Mona Tommasa, is also ill. Paolo had married late
in life, after his return from Padua, and had a son of
sixteen, named after his friend Donatello, and a
daughter Antonia, who is described as being herself
an artist, and who became a Carmelite nun after her
father's death. Six years later, on the nth of
December, 1475, Paolo Uccello died, and was buried
in his father's sepulchre in San Spirito.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Duomo: Frescoes — Equestrian Portrait of
Sir John Hawkwood, Four Heads of
Prophets.
„ S. Maria Novella — Chiostro Verde:
Frescoes — The Creation, Deluge,
Sacrifice of Noah,
„ Vffizi: 52. Battle of S. Romano.

124 PAOLO UCCELLO [1397-1475

Chief Works {continued) —

Urbino. — Gallery: 89. The Miracle of the Host,

1468.
London. — National Gallery : 583. Battle of S.

Romano,
Oxford, — University Galleries: 28. Midnight Hunt.
Paris. — Louvre: 1272. Portraits of Giotto, Paolo

Uccello, Donatello, Brunellesco and

Antonio Manetti ; 1273. Battle.
Vienna : Count Lanckoronski : St. George and the

Dragon.

VIII
ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

1390-1457

Closely connected with Paolo Uccello, both by the
character of his art and the time of his life, was
Andrea del Castagno, or Andreino, as he is called by
Giovanni Santi in his " Chronicle," and by Albertini in
his "Memorials." Vasari pronounced him to be great
and excellent both in drawing and painting, but ac-
cused him of having murdered his comrade, Domenico
Veneziano, who was working with him in S. Maria
Nuova, in order to obtain possession of certain secrets
of oil painting. Since the two artists never worked
together in this church, and Domenico survived his
supposed murderer four years, the charge may be
dismissed as groundless, and Vasari*s only excuse for
the statement is, that, in 1443, a painter named
Domenico di Matteo was murdered by some un-
known person in Florence.

Andrea was born, about 1 390, at Castagno, a village
of Val Mugello, and began life, like Giotto, by keeping
sheep, until his taste for drawing attracted the notice of
Bernardetto de' Medici, who brought him to Florence
and placed him under a good teacher. The name of
his master is unknown, but his vigorous drawing and
realistic style bear a marked affinity to the art of

126

126 ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO [i39o-

Paolo Uccello and Donatello, by whom he was, it is
plain, strongly influenced. The traditional violence
and brutality of his temper certainly agree with the
character of his works. His types are coarse and un-
pleasant, his colouring hard and crude, but the accur-
acy of his drawing and the power and reality of his crea-
tions are undeniable. The bitterness of his spirit and
natural rudeness of his peasant nature was increased
by the hard struggles of his early years. In 1430, he
describes himself as having been laid up in a hospital
during the last four months, and as owning neither
home nor bed in Florence, his sole possession being a
small house, which he had inherited from his father,
in Val Mugello. By degrees, however, his circum-
stances improved, and his talent obtained recognition.
In 1435, he was employed by the Signory to paint the
effigies of the Albizzi and Peruzzi, who were exiled as
rebels for plotting against Cosimo de' Medici, on the
walls of the Podesta palace, and acquired the surname
of Andrea degli Impiccati — " Andrea of the Gallows" —
from this circumstance. He was also employed to
design stained glass for the cupola, and to paint
cherubs and lilies on the organ of the Duomo. But
his chief work at this period was the decoration of a
hall in the Villa Pandolfini, at Legnaia, with full-length
figures of illustrious Florentines, as well as famous
Queens and Sibyls of ancient legend. This hall,
which Andrea further adorned with pilasters, friezes
of youth and festoons of flowers and fruit, in classical
style, and which as an example of Renaissance decora-
tion excited Albertini's admiration, has long been de-
stroyed, but the portraits of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio,
Farinata degli Uberti, Niccol6 Acciaiuoli, the Grand

1457] FRESCOES IN S. APOLLONIA 127

Seneschal of Naples, and of the Hospodar, Filippo
Scolari, as well as the figures of the Cumoean Sibyls,
Queen Esther and Thomyris, Queen of the Amazons,
were safely transferred to canvas, and now hang
in the Museum of S. Apollonia. All of these figures
are distinguished by the same sculptural austerity
of design and vivacity of expression, and the
warriors Farinata and Pippo Spano standing with
swords in their hands and legs apart, bear a striking
resemblance to Donatello's St. George. The same
fiery spirit and vigorous reality mark the equestrian
portrait of Niccol6 da Tolentino, which Andrea
executed in 1455, as a companion to that of Sir John
Hawkwood, but both horse and warrior lack some-
thing of the distinction which belongs to Paolo
Uccello's conception.

Unfortunately the important series of frescoes o\
the Virgin's life, which Andrea painted in the Chapel
of S. Egidio, belonging to the hospital of S. Maria
Nuova, between 1450 and 1453, have perished, and
only a Trinity, with an emaciated St. Jerome and
other Saints, remains of those which he executed in
the Medici Chapel of the Annunziata.

But two frescoes of the Crucifixion which Andrea
painted, as Vasari tells us, in the convent of Santa
Maria degli Angeli, adjoining the hospital, are still
in existence. One of these remains in the ancient
court of the hospital ; the other has been removed
to the Uffizi. It is a noble example of the master's
dramatic powers, which are nowhere better displayed
than in the figure of St. John at the foot of the
cross.

128

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

[1390-

Another fresco representing the Last Supper may
still be seen in the refectory of the ancient convent
of S. Apollonia, which is now a complete gallery
of Andrea's works. Frescoes of the Crucifixion,
Entombment and Resurrection have lately been
recovered from the whitewash which concealed them,
and the heroes and women from Villa Pandolfini
have been hung upon one of the walls, while the
whole of another wall is occupied by the Cenacolo.
This subject is painted with Andrea's habitual
directness and frank realism. The white cloth and
dishes on the table, the barrel vaulting of the ceiling
and panelling of its walls, the grass on the ground,
and the room opening out of the upper chamber, are
all exactly reproduced. The Apostles are rough
peasants, with strong faces and coarse hands, and
there is little attempt at nobility of form or elevation
of thought, even in the Christ. But in spite of the
vulgarity of type and lack of ideal beauty, the work
is one of great power and originality. The heads
of the Apostles are full of individual character, the
grouping of the figures, their gestures and attitudes,
are singularly varied and expressive, and there can
be little doubt that the composition of this naturalist
master inspired Leonardo with the first idea of his
sublime work.

A second Cenacolo, which Andrea del Castagno
painted in the summer of 1457, for the refectory of
Santa Maria Nuova, was his last fresco. A few
months later he died, on the 19th of August, at the
age of sixty-seven, and was buried in the church of
the Annunziata.

1457] CHIEF WORKS 129

Chief Works —

Florence, — S. Apollonia: Frescoes— Last Supper, Crucifixion,
Entombment and Resurrection. Nine figures from
Villa Pandolfini, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante,
Queen Thomyris, Cumcean Sibyl, Niccolo Accia-
iuoli, Farinata degli Uberti, Filippo Scolari, Queen
Esther.
,f Annunziata: Fresco — Trinity, with St. Jerome and

other Saints.
„ Duomo: Fresco — Equestrian Portrait of Niccol6 da

Tolentino.
„ Uffizi: Fresco— 12. Crucifixion (from S. Maria degli

Angeli).
,, Hospital of S. M. Nuova: Crucifixion.

London. — National Gallery : 1138. Crucifixion.

„ Mr. Pierpont Morgan : Portrait of Maru

Berlin. — Gallery: 47a, Assumption,

IX

DOMENICO VENEZIANO

1400-1461

If the two first Naturalist masters of the fifteenth
century, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno,
have left few works behind them, we have still less
opportunity of studying the paintings of their con-
temporary, Domenico Veneziano, who belonged to
the same group, and whose style was formed on the
pattern of Donatello and Masaccio's art. Domenico
was born in Venice about 1400, and probably became
acquainted with Cosimo de' Medici during his exile
from Florence in 1434, since four years later the
Venetian artist addressed a letter to Cosimo's son Piero,
which shows that he was on friendly terms with the
family. Those were golden days for art, and Giovanni
Rucellai expressed the feelings of many of his fellow-
citizens when he thanked God that he was a native
of Florence, the greatest city in the world, and lived
in the age of the magnificent Medici. Never was
there a time when so many churches and palaces
were built and adorned, never were scholars and artists
so generously patronised and so highly honoured as
in those days. The members of this illustrious house
not only lavished their wealth on works of art, but
took a personal interest in the artists they employed

}80

1400-1461] LETTER TO PIERO DE' MEDICI 131

Painters and sculptors were admitted into the family
circle of the Palace in the Via Larga, and numbered
among Cosimo's most intimate friends. Michelozzo
followed him in his exile to Venice, and Donatello
begged that he might be buried close to his patron's
tomb in S. Lorenzo, in order that he might be near
him in death as he had been in life. Cosimo*s eldest
son Piero il Gottoso — the Gouty — shared his father's
love of art, and, in spite of continual ill-health, took a
keen interest in the painters whom he employed, and
personally superintended the decoration of the Medici
Palace. It was to him that Domenico Veneziano, in
April 1438, wrote the following letter from Perugia,
where he was engaged in painting the figures of
twenty-five illustrious soldiers and scholars in the
hall of the Casa Baglioni.

"Most Illustrious and Generous Friend, — With
all due respect I am glad to inform you that I am well, and
hope that you too are well and happy. Many a time have
I inquired for news of you, but could hear nothing until the
other day Manno Donati told me that you had gone to
Ferrara, and were very well in health, which afforded me
great consolation. And had I known where you were, I
would have written to you before, as much for my own
satisfaction as out of the duty I owe you. For although
in my humble condition I have no right to address your
gentikzza, the perfect and true love which I bear to you,
and all of yours, gives me boldness to write this, knowing
how much I owe to you. I hear that Cosimo is going to
have an altar-piece painted, and desires it to be a magnificent
work. The idea pleases me greatly, and would please me
still more if I might be allowed to paint the picture ; and if
this could be, I believe I could show you marvellous things.

i3» DOMENICO VENEZIANO l'4oo.

And since the best masters, such as Fra Filippo and Era
Giovanni have much work to do, and Fra Filippo especially
is engaged on an altar-piece for San Spirito, which will take
him five years, working both day and night, my great wish
to serve you makes me presumptuous enough to ofifer myself
for the work. And if I do it badly, I will gladly accept
deserved correction of my faults, having no wish but to
do you honour ... and if the work is so great that Cosimo
thinks of employing several masters, I pray you to use your
influence to obtain a small share in it for me, knowing as
you do my ardent desire to accomplish some famous work,
more especially for you. So I beg you to do yaur utmost,
and promise that my work shall not fail to do you honour.
I have nothing else to say just now, saving that if there is
anything else I can do for you, I am always at your service;
and I beg of you to send me an answer regarding the pro-
posed altar-piece, and above all to inform me of your state
of health, of which I am most anxious to hear. And may
Christ prosper you and fulfil all your desires.-Your most
faithful servant, Domenico of Venice, painter. In Perugia,
the first day of April."

The altar-piece in question may have been one

which Cosimo presented to S. Domenico of Cortona,

towards the end of the year, in which case the artist

did not obtain the commission ; but it was probably

owing to Piero's influence that he was invited soon

after this to paint the choir of the Chapel of S. Egidio

in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova. From 1439 to

1445, Domenico was employed on this work, and

executed a series of frescoes on the Childhood and

Marriage of the Virgin, in which he introduced many

admirable portraits of the Medici and their contem-

poraries, as well as several women of rare grace

and beauty. Vasari's assertion that Domenico

I46I] UFFIZI ALTAR-PIECE 133

painted these frescoes in oils, is partly borne out by
entries in the account books of the hospital, which
speak of large quantities of linseed oil being supplied
to the artist while he was engaged upon these works ;
and although a certain admixture of oil in fresco
painting was common as early as Cennino's time, there
seems little doubt that Domenico made experiments
in this medium. We know that Piero dei Franceschi,
the Umbrian pupil who had accompanied him from
Perugia and worked as his assistant in S. Maria
Nuova, adopted this practice in his turn, and twenty
years later agreed to paint a banner in oils for a
church in Arezzo.

Unfortunately, a singular fatality has attended all
Domenico's most important works. His figures in
the Casa Baglioni, his frescoes in S. Egidio, and
another series which he and Piero dei Franceschi were
invited to paint in the Sacristy of the Santa Casa
of Loreto, about 1450, have all perished. His most
important work now remaining is the altar-piece
which he painted for S. Lucia de' Bardi, and which,
according to Vasari, he finished shortly before his
death. This picture, now in the Uffizi, represents
the Madonna and Child enthroned under a triple
loggia between the Baptist and St. Francis on one
side, and St. Nicholas and S. Lucia on the other, and
bears the signature of the artist, with the words, " O
mother of God, have mercy upon me ! " It is a typical
Quattrocento work, and shows the great progress
which art had made in many directions during the
last fifty years. The niches and: cornices of coloured
marbles, the fine modelling and strong relief of
the heads, the thorough knowledge of anatomy and

134 DOMENICO VENEZIANO [1400.

perspective, all prove how attentively Domenico had
studied the works of Masaccio and the Naturalist
painters. The figures cannot be said to attain Paolo
Uccello's perfection of structure and balance, nor are
the heads as full of individual character as those of
Andrea del Castagno, but the colouring is bright and
attractive, and in the delicate profile of Santa Lucia,
in the simple pose of the Virgin and natural atti-
tude of the Child, standing on his Mother's knee
and turning round to look at the Baptist, we recog-
nise something of Fra Angelico's charm. The whole
work is one of great interest, revealing, as it does, a
tenderness of feeling and a grace that go far to ex-
plain the high degree of reputation which Domenico
enjoyed in Florence. The predella of this picture,
described by Lanzi, and representing the Martyrdom
of S. Lucia, with a king who appears to direct
the execution from a balcony above, is now at
Berlin.

Another characteristic work is the fresco which
this artist painted for a Tabernacle at the corner of
two streets leading to S. Maria Novella, and which,
after being removed from the wall and transferred to
canvas in 1851, is now in the National Gallery. Here
the fair-haired Virgin, seated on a throne in a flowery
meadow, with the Child on her knee lifting his hand in
blessing, and God the Father and the Dove of the
Holy Ghost above, resembles the Madonna of S.
Lucia in type and feature, while the keen, thoughtful
heads of the Dominican friars below are full of
character. Closely related to these is the fresco of
the Baptist and St. Francis, in Santa Croce, two noble
types of ascetic holiness and fervent devotion. A

.-- ^%^"^^

Sjgi N;;

^ ,lppl^

ww^KfEKi^- -7^ .'^^3>i^

EMMiMli' '^^ «H^T~^tBHH^^w<^ H^^^^ .^Hyk./ Mci^^^^^l

(f'S

ai

1 ■ ■^^fl-- -^^^^ ^

^4'%ii|

a ^

=||^t

9

y=i=a^p=^

■ 'Wi

» :!^:V

'*'"" --'"•-^' ■ ""^^!^^S?^Sa?*^5£^

MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS (UFFIZi;
DOxMENICO VENEZIANO.

{To face page 134

i46i] HIS LAST DAYS 135

woman's portrait by Domenico is mentioned among
the pictures in the Palazzo Medici, and a fine bust of
a man in red cap and vest, now in the Pitti, belongs to
his last years.

Domenico's work at Loreto was interrupted by an
outbreak of the plague, and by May 1455, he was back
in Florence, where he rented a house in the parish of
S. Paolo. After this we hear no more of him until
he died, on the 15th of May 1461, and was buried in
S. Piero Gattolini. And in 1462, the architect Filarete,
in the Dedication of his Treatise to Francesco Sforza,
Duke of Milan, mentions Domenico da Venezia, to-
gether with Andreino and Francesco di Pesello, as three
excellent artists who had lately died in Florence.
The high reputation in which Domenico was still held
at Perugia is proved by the fact that when Bonfigli
executed his frescoes in the Palace of the Commune,
an express condition was made that the work was to
be valued by Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo and Domenico
of Venice. The frescoes, however, were not com-
pleted until 1 46 1, by which time both Angelico and
Domenico were dead, and Fra Filippo alone remained
to decide the question. A gentle and amiable
character, Domenico made himself generally beloved,
and was noted for his musical gifts, taking delight
both in singing and playing the lute. But neither his
artistic talents nor his fame succeeded in bringing him
wealth. He never acquired a house or property of
his own in Florence, and died poor, if we are to
believe the following notice affixed to his name in the
margin of the account books of S. Maria Nuova : " and
if any more was paid to Domenico da Venezia, it is
lost, for he has left nothing."

136 DOMENICO VENEZIANO [1400-1461

Chief Works—

Florence. — Uffizi: 1305. Madonna and Child, with
four Saints.
„ Santa Croce: Fresco — Baptist and St

c, Francis.

Berlin. — Gallery: 64. Predella — Martyrdom of S.

Lucia.
London. — National Gallery: Frescoes — 766, 767*
Heads of Dominican friars; 1215.
Madonna and Child Enthroned.

X

ALESSO BALDOVINETTI

1427-1499

DOMENICO Veneziano's most illustrious scholar
was the great Umbrian artist Piero dei Franceschi,
who, both in his types and landscapes, shows close
affinity to his master. But he also numbered among
his followers the Florentine Alesso Baldovinetti, who,
as the teacher of Ghirlandajo, of the Pollaiuoli brothers
and Andrea Verrocchio, exerted considerable influence
on the next generation of artists, and occupies an im-
portant place in art history. Alessio was born on the
14th of October 1427, and early gave up his father's
trade to study painting in the shop of Domenico
Veneziano. In 1448, he matriculated in the Painters'
Guild, and about the same time was employed to
paint three panels in the presses for the altar-plate
of the Medici Chapel in the Annunziata, which Fra
Angelico had left unfinished when he went to Rome.
These little subjects, representing the Baptism, Trans-
figuration and Marriage in Cana, are marked by the
same refined naturalism that we find in Domenico
Veneziano's works, and show the same technical
methods and careful accurate observation.

A curious book of Ricordi^ which has been preserved
in the Archives of S. Maria Nuova, gives an account

137

138 ALESSO BALDOVINETTI [1427-

of commissions executed by Baldovinetti between
1449 and 1491, and shows how varied his occupations
were. Besides frescoes and altar-pieces for churches,
we find entries of household altars for private devotion,
panels for the decoration of bedsteads and furniture,
marriage chests and shields painted with arms and
garlands and inscribed with mottoes, gesso frames,
mosaics, cartoons for stained glass and intarsia. In
1454, he painted an Inferno in the Infirmary of the
Servi brothers, for Lodovico Gonzaga, — a picture
described in the Ricordi as " a Hell with many nudes
and furies." Four years later he received eight florins
for certain figures round the high altar of S. Egidio,
the chapel in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova, which
Domenico Veneziano and Andrea del Castagno had
adorned with frescoes. He does not, however, men-
tion the fresco of the Nativity, in the cloisters of the
Annunziata, which he painted in 1462, for the sum
of twenty florins, which had been bequeathed to the
Servi friars by a citizen named Arrigucci. This
much damaged fresco, the first of a remarkable series
by the hands of some of the best Florentine painters,
is a characteristic example of Baldovinetti's style.
The composition is wanting in unity, the figures
are scattered and the interest divided, but the land-
scape of Val d'Arno is rendered with a truth and love
of detail which marks an epoch in art. "Alesso,"
writes Vasari, " was a very diligent artist, who tried
to copy minutely every detail in Mother Nature.
He loved painting landscapes exactly as they are,
and you see in his pictures, rivers, bridges, rocks,
plants, fruit-trees, roads, fields, towns, castles and an
infinite number of similar objects. In his Nativity

1499] LANDSCAPES 139

you can count the separate straws and knots in the
thatched roof of the hut, and you see the stones in the
ruined house behind, worn away by rain, and the
thick root of ivy growing up the wall is painted with
so much accuracy that the green leaves are differently
shaded on either side ; and among the shepherds he
introduced a snake crawling in the most natural
manner along the wall." This treatment of land-
scape is common to all Baldovinetti's works, and
forms a marked feature in the charming Madonna
and Child in the Louvre, where it is still ascribed
to his fellow-pupil Piero dei Franceschi. Unfortun-
ately for the preservation of his paintings, Alesso
followed his master Domenico's example in trying
new methods of colouring, and his experiments, as
Vasari tells us, often proved disastrous. " He began
nis works in fresco, and finished them in secco^ mixing
his egg- tempera with a liquid varnish, heated in the
fire, which instead of protecting his paintings from
damp, destroyed the colour ; and so, instead of making
a rare and valuable discovery, he deceived himself
and ruined his works."

A few of his panel-pictures, however, are still in
a fair state of preservation. One of the best is the
altar-piece in the Uffizi, which he painted for the
chapel of the Medici villa at Caffagiuolo. Here the
Virgin — who has Angelico and Domenico Veneziano's
grace of type and sweetness of expression — is seated
in a garden, with her feet on an Eastern carpet,
and palms and cypresses appearing above the rich
brocaded hangings behind her throne. St. Francis
and St. Dominic kneel at her feet in deep devotion,
and the Baptist, SS. Cosimo and Damian and other

140 ALESSO BALDOVINETTI [14*7-

saints stand on either side. Very similar in style
is the altar-piece of the Trinity, in the Accademia,
for which Baldovinetti received eighty-nine florins,
and which he painted in 1472, for the high altar of
the Trinitk, at the desire of Bongianni Gianfigliazzi.
The idea of the angels floating on the clouds and
drawing back the curtain to display the heavenly
vision was finely conceived and well executed ; but
the picture is in a bad condition, and much of the
colour has been destroyed. This same Gianfigliazzi,
we learn from Alesso's records, was the patron who,
in July 147 1, gave him the great work of his life,
the frescoes in the choir of the Trinitk. The painter
had promised to finish the series in seven years, for
the sum of 200 florins, but the task proved far more
arduous than he had expected, and it was only in
January 1497 that his work was at length completed.
Four masters of repute, Cosimo Rosselli, Benozzo
Gozzoli, Pietro Perugino and Filippino Lippi, were
then called to value the frescoes, and fixed the
price at 1000 florins. These works, to which Baldo-
vinetti devoted the best years of his life, and in
which he introduced portraits of the Medici and
their most illustrious contemporaries, were destroyed
in 1760, when the choir was rebuilt, and the only
fragments now to be seen are the figures of the
Patriarchs on the ceiling, which have been lately
brought to light, and a portrait of the painter in a
red mantle, with a green cloth on his head and a
white handkerchief in his hand, which is now in the
Morelli collection at Bergamo.

Alesso's journal ends in 149 1, when his time and
thoughts were absorbed in this great work. The

1499] DIES IN A HOSPITAL 141

last entries record his restoration of the mosaics in
the Baptistery of Florence and in the choir of S.
Miniato, where, twenty-five years before, he had
decorated the Cardinal of Portugal's Sepulchral
Chapel with frescoes of the Prophets and an altar-
piece of the Annunciation. A few of his smaller
Madonnas may be seen in private collections in
Paris and Florence, and a profile portrait of a lady
in the National Gallery, which has been ascribed
at different times to Piero dei Franceschi and Paolo
Uccello, has been lately recognised by Mr Roger Fry
as his work. The face is one of great charm and
distinction, and the patterned brocade of the sleeve
and beads of the necklace are painted in Baldovinetti's
characteristic manner.

Alesso married about 1479, when he was already
over fifty, but his wife, Mona Daria, died early, leaving
him to a solitary old age. On the 17th of October
1498, being seventy-one years of age, the painter
entered the hospital of S. Paolo, a house of charity
belonging to the Third Order of St. Francis, and made
a donation of all his goods after his death to this in-
stitution, on condition that his faithful maid-servant
Mea should be supported to the end of her life. Ten
months afterwards he died, on the 29th of August,
and was buried in a grave which he had bought
twenty years before in the Church of S. Lorenzo.
Vasari relates how, after his death, a big chest which
he had brought with him into the hospital was opened,
and how, instead of being full of gold, as the Master
of the Hospital expected, it only contained a few
drawings and a book on the art of mosaic. " But no
one was much surprised," adds the historian ; " for he

142 ALESSO BALDOVINETTI [1427-1499

was so kind and courteous that he shared everything
he possessed with his friends."

Chief Works—

Florence. — S. Trinithy Choir: Frescoes of ceiling —
Noah, Moses, Abraham, David,
Sacrifice of Isaac. 147 1- 1497.
„ .S". Miniato: Annunciation, frescoes of

Prophets.
„ S. Pancrazio : Fresco — Risen Christ.

M Aceademia: 233. Marriage in Cana,

Baptism, Transfiguration ; 159. Trinity.
„ Uffizi: 56. Annunciation; 60. Madonna

and Saints.
„ Mr. Berenson : Madonna and Child.

„ Annunziata: Fresco — Nativity.

„ S. Ambrogio: Madonna adoring Child,

with Saints (partly).
Bergamo. — Gallery : 23. Fresco — Portrait of

Painter.
London. — National Gallery : 758. Portrait of Lady.
P&ris, — Louvre: 1300A. Madonna.

XI
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI

1406-1469

After the death of Masaccio, the foremost artists in
Florence were two friars, the Dominican Fra Angelico
and the Carmelite Fra Filippo Lippi. But although
both were members of religious orders, and both
worked at the same period, the lives and art of the
two men present the greatest possible contrast
While Fra Angelico was a saint who saw in every
picture a direct act of worship, Fra Lippo was a gay
and pleasure-loving worldling, who felt ill at ease in
his friar's habit, and gladly availed himself of his art
as a means of escape from the cloister. " He was very
fond of good company," says Vasari, " and himself
led a free and joyous life." His dreams were all of
earth, and his thoughts never soared beyond the
gladness and beauty of the natural world. He paints
the merry, curly-headed boys whom he met in the
streets of Florence as cherubs, takes his mistress as a
model for his Madonnas, and peoples the court of
heaven with fair maidens in rich attire and dainty
head-gear. A thorough-going realist at heart, his
naturalism differed wholly from that of his contem-
poraries, Paolo Uccello or Andrea del Castagno. He
never troubled his head with scientific problems or

144 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-

new technical methods. The old tempera painting
was good enough for him, and he carried this form of
art to the highest point of perfection, while at the
same time he profited by all the advance which
Masaccio and his followers had madej and gave a
marked impulse to the new realism by the strong
human element which he introduced in his works.
His genial delight in all bright and pleasant things, in
the daisies and the springtime, in rich ornament and
glowing colour, in splendid architecture and sunny
landscapes, in lovely women and round baby-faces,
fitted him in an especial manner to be the herald of
that fuller and larger life which was dawning on the
men and women of the Renaissance.

This painter, who was to carry out Masaccio's
principles and continue his teaching, began life in the
convent of the Carmelite church, where that short-
lived master painted his great frescoes. Filippo Lippi
was a butcher's son, and was born in 1406, in a street
behind the Carmine Church. His mother died at his
birth, and his father two years afterwards, and at the
age of eight the boy was taken to the neighbour-
ing convent by his aunt, Mona Lapaccia, who could
no longer support him. The friars taught him to
read, and placed him in the novices' school; but instead
of learning grammar the boy drew figures on his
copy-book, and turned musical notes into arms and
legs. Fortunately the Prior encouraged these artistic
tastes, and sent young Lippo to learn of Lorenzo
Monaco, from whom he acquired the skill in handling
colour and glazes that distinguished his tempera-
paintings. Afterwards he studied in the Brancacci
Chapel, where his greatest delight was to watch

1469J HIS ADVENTURES 145

Masaccio at work, and where he so far excelled his
comrades that people said Masaccio's spirit had
entered into the body of Fra Lippo. On the 8th of
June 142 1, the young artist took the vows of a Car-
melite friar and became a member of the Order, but
he still worked diligently at his profession, and painted
many frescoes in the church and cloister, which were
destroyed in the fire of 1771. We find the word
" painter" affixed to Fra Lippo's name in the convent
records of 1430 and 1431, at the end of which year he
left the monastery to devote himself solely to art. By
this time the Carmelites were probably satisfied that
he had no vocation for the cloister, and did not
seek to detain him, but he remained on friendly terms
with them, and always signed his pictures " Frater
Fkilippus"

Soon after this, according to a well-known story —
which is not only told by Vasari, but was current
in Florence towards the close of the century, and is
placed by the novelist Matteo Bandello in Leonardo's
lips — Fra Lippo fell into the hands of Moorish pirates,
when he was sailing in a pleasure-boat off the coast
of Ancona, and was taken captive to Barbary, and
there sold as a slave. Here the skill with which he
drew his master's portrait in charcoal on his prison-
wall produced so favourable an impression on the
Moors, that at the end of eighteen months he was
released and returned to Florence. Whatever may
be the truth of this strange story, it is certain that
we hear nothing of Fra Lippo between 143 1, and the
summer of 1434, when he was employed in painting
a tabernacle for the basilica of II Santo, at Padua.

On his return to Florence he found a generous

K

146 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-

patron in Cosimo de' Medici, who took the lively
friar under his especial protection, and not only
appreciated his talent, but looked indulgently on
his freaks and follies, saying that men of his rare
genius were angels of light, and must not be treated
like beasts of burden. But Fra Lippo's idle and
dissolute habits were a sore trial to his employers,
and once, when Cosimo, in despair of ever seeing
him finish the picture upon which he was engaged,
locked him up in a room of the Via Larga
Palace, the friar knotted his bed-clothes into a
rope, and let himself down into the street from
the window! Yet Cosimo himself and all the
members of his family looked kindly on the way-
ward artist, and not only employed him to paint
pictures for their own houses and chapels, but sent
his works as gifts to the Pope and the king of Naples.
Through their powerful influence, he was appointed
rector of S. Quirico, at Legnaia, in 1442, and ten
years later became chaplain to the nuns of S. Niccol6
in Florence. Among the first works which Lippi
painted for the Medici Palace were the two charming
lunettes of the Seven Saints and of the Annun-
ciation in the National Gallery. The patron Saints
of the family, Cosimo and Damiano, figure prominently
in the first group, and the Annunciation bears the
badge of the Medici — three feathers held together by
a ring. Both of these little paintings are executed
with the brilliancy and finish of a miniature, and
are among the most exquisite examples of tempera
in existence. The same freshness and charm dis-
tinguish the youthful Virgin adoring the Child
sleeping on the flowery meadow with the little St

MADONNA ADORING THE CHILD (ACCADEMIA).
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI.

{.To face page 146

1469] EARLY MADONNAS 147

John in the background, which Fra Lippo painted
for Cosimo's wife. This subject is repeated with a
figure of St. Bernard and a finely wooded landscape
in the background, in a lovely picture at Berlin,
which may have been the altar-piece that once
adorned the chapel in the Medici Palace, where
Benozzo Gozzoli painted his frescoes of the Journey
of the Three Kings to Bethlehem. It was evidently
a favourite with the Medici, and we find a third
version in another altar-piece which Fra Lippo painted
by their command, for the nunnery of Annalena.
But of all the works which he executed for these
generous patrons, the best-known is the delightful
little Uffizi picture of two boy-angels holding up
the Child before his Mother, who sits with clasped
hands, in front of an open window. The muslin
frills of the fair-haired Virgin's veil, the chubby-
faced Child stretching out his little arms to his
Mother, above all the mischievous look in the eyes
of the boy-angel with white tunic and purple wings,
who is said to represent the young Lorenzo de*
Medici, are all in Fra Filippo's happiest manner.
Through the open window we see a river winding
its way over rich plains, and on the rocky heights
beyond we catch a glimpse of distant towers steeped
in the glow of the evening sun. Fra Lippo excelled
in designing these small pictures for household altars,
and was one of the first to adopt the round form,
or tondo^ which became so popular with Florentine
painters and sculptors. An admirable example of
this class of picture by his hand is the Madonna
and Child with the pomegranate, in the Pitti. As
before, Masaccio's influence is apparent in the model-

148 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-

ling of the heads and hands, and graceful women-
figures and architectural accessories are introduced
in the background with a highly decorative effect.
The original drawing for this sweet, mournful Virgin-
face is in the Dreyfus collection in Paris, and is said
to be a portrait of the fair novice Lucrezia Buti who
afterwards became Fra Lippo's wife. The picture
evidently belongs to the friar's maturer years, and
was probably painted when he was at Prato. To
an earlier date we must ascribe the Madonna and
Angels in the Louvre, which was ordered by the
Captain of Or' San Michele for a chapel in S. Spirito,
in 1336, and which Lippi complained would cost him
five years of incessant toil !

The large Coronation of the Virgin, in the Accademia,
was ordered in i/}4i, by the Prior of S. Ambrogio, but
only completed six years later, when the painter
received the sum of 1200 lire. Here the painter's
conception of the scene is strikingly original. Three
rows of angels crowned with roses, and holding tall
white lilies, stand around the throne ; saints and
bishops, monks and nuns mingle with little children
in the crowd of worshippers below ; and in the right
hand, conspicuous among these splendid robes and
wealth of ornament by his shaven head and Carmelite
habit, is Fra Lippo himself, clasping his hands de-
voutly, while a laughing Angel holds up a scroll
with the words Iste perfecit opus. In the same year
that he finished this important work, he received
another forty florins from the Signory of Florence
for the small Vision of St. Bernard, in the National
Gallery, which originally hung in a hall of the
Palazzo Pubblico. But in spite of increasing fame

1469] COMPLAINS OF POVERTY 149

and of the large sums which he received for these
works, the friar was always poor and needy, beset
with impatient creditors, and writing begging letters
to the Medici. In August 1439, he addressed a queru-
lous epistle to Piero, complaining that his illustrious
patron had not sent him a farthing, although he in-
sisted on keeping his picture, and calling himself the
poorest friar in Florence. And since it is his grievous
misfortune to have six orphan nieces, sickly and in-
capable girls of marriageable age, depending upon him,
he implores Piero for God's sake to send him a little
corn and wine, in order that they may not starve
during his absence. " I cannot leave home," he adds
in conclusion, " for I have not enough to buy a pair
of socks, and if I stay here I am a dead man, so great
is the terror I live in! So I entreat you to reply
at once, and send word to your house that something
may be paid me." In his distress, he occasionally
had recourse to the most unscrupulous measures,
and, in 1450, forged a receipt for the sum of forty
florins, which he owed to one of his assistants. A
law-suit followed, and Fra Lippo, being put to the
rack, confessed his crime, and in May 1455, was
deprived of his benefice of S. Quirico, partly because
of his misdeeds, and partly because, in spite of
repeated warnings, he never visited his church or
parish. Nothing daunted, the guilty friar appealed
to Pope Calixtus III., but his Holiness only con-
firmed the sentence, and declared the said Fra
Lippo to be guilty of many and great wickednesses.
After this disastrous affair Lippi retired to Prato,
where he had been engaged four years before, to
paint the choir of the Pieve, or parish church, which

ISO FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-

Fra Angelico had been unable to undertake. Here
he bought a house close to the convent of Santa
Margherita, and was appointed chaplain to this com-
munity and requested by the Abbess to paint a
Madonna for the nuns' chapel. Although he was al-
ready past fifty, the incorrigible Friar now fell in love
with his model, a beautiful orphan girl of twenty-one,
named Lucrezia Buti, the daughter of a Florentine silk-
weaver, who had been placed in the convent by her
brother, and had taken the vows two years before.
On the festival of the Holy Girdle, which was cele-
brated with great pomp at Prato, the Friar carried off
Lucrezia to his own house, where she was soon followed
by her elder sister Spinetta, who, like herself, had
little vocation for the cloister. Towards the end of
1457, Lucrezia gave birth to a son, the painter
Filippino Lippi ; but two years later, both she and her
sister were compelled to return to the convent, and, on
the 23rd of December 1459, solemnly renewed their
vows, in the presence of the Bishop of Pistoia. Before
long, however, Lucrezia and her sister found the con-
vent rule intolerable, and once more sought refuge in
Fra Lippo's house. This time a charge of unlawful
abduction was brought against the painter, who
appealed to his powerful friend Cosimo, at whose
intercession Pope Pius H. absolved both the guilty
parties from their vows and declared them to be
lawful man and wife. The whole story is a curious
illustration of contemporary morals, and throws light
on the habits and practices of religious communities
of the age.

The Friar's adventures, as might be expected, excited
not a little merriment among his friends in Florence.

1469] WORKS FOR THE MEDICI 151

" I laughed heartily," wrote Cosimo's younger son,
Giovanni de' Medici, " when I heard of Fra Filippo's
escapade." In the same letter, addressed to a
Florentine envoy at the Court of Naples, Giovanni
alludes to the picture by Fra Lippo which he had
presented to King Alfonso, and which had greatly
pleased His Majesty. This little panel, a Madonna
and Child with Angels and a youthful St. Michael, was
painted by the Friar in 1457, after repeated delays and
interruptions. On the 20th of Jrly, he addressed a
letter to his "dearest and most illustrious lord/*
Giovanni de' Medici, who was spending the summer
in his villa at Fiesole, professing himself to be his
willing slave, and sending a sketch of the proposed
picture, but asking for supplies of money, that he may
obtain gold and silver leaf for the armour and wings of
St. Michael. As usual, he is without a farthing, and has
been unable to work for three days for want of gilding.
" And I entreat you to answer," he adds ; " for here 1
am dying, and only long to get away." This anxiety
to leave Florence was not entirely due to the heat of
the season, or even to the Friar's desire to see
Lucrezia and her new-born son, for, six weeks later,
a servant of the Medici, Francesco Cantansanti, writes
to inform Giovanni, that up till Saturday evening he
has been vainly urging Fra Filippo to finish the
picture, and now hears that the goods in his shop
have been seized by his creditors, and that he himself
has disappeared. " But what risks the man runs ! " is
the conclusion with which the long-suffering agent
ends his tale. The picture in question was eventually
finished by the following spring, and sent to Naples
in May 1458. The next year Fra Lippo found him-

153 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-

self engaged in another tedious law-suit respecting a
picture of St. Jerome, which he had agreed to paint
for Lorenzo de' Manetti. As usual the unscrupulous
artist had taken the money without painting the
picture, and was condemned to be publicly excom-
municated by the Archbishop.

Meanwhile the frescoes in the church at Prato,
which Filippo had engaged to execute, in 1452, and
for which he had already received considerable sums,
were still unfinished. After repeated entreaties and
remonstrances. Carlo de' Medici, the illegitimate son
of Cosimo, who became Rector of Prato, in 1460,
at length induced the Friar to resume the long-
neglected work, and the frescoes were finally com-
pleted in 1464. On the right wall of the choir, the
artist painted scenes from the life of the Baptist ; on
the left he represented the history of St. Stephen, the
patron-saint of Prato. These frescoes are Fra Lippo's
most important works, and reveal his really great
powers of design and execution. The grandeur of
the composition and dramatic vigour with which the
story is told, the animation and variety of the in-
dividual figures and the admirable proportions and
perspective of the architecture justify the high praise
bestowed upon the friar's works by Morelli, who com-
pares them with Mantegna's frescoes at Padua, and
pronounces them to be among the noblest creations
of the fifteenth century. The early subjects from the
Baptist's life abound in fascinating episodes and
graceful figures, whose classical design and flowing
lines prove Fra Lippo to have been an attentive
student of antique models. Especially attractive is
the simple and touching scene in which the young

1469] FRESCOES AT PRATO 153

St John takes leave of his parents and receives their
farewell blessing before the eyes of a sorrowing com-
pany of friends. But the most striking composition
is the Feast of Herod, a scene of worldly splendour,
in which the Friar's love of stately architecture, rich
costumes and youthful loveliness has full play. The
group at the supper-table, where Salome, kneeling
before her gorgeously-arrayed mother, offers her the
Baptist's head in a charger, recalls Masolino's Castig-
lione fresco, only that here, the horror-struck maidens
clasp each other in a close embrace, as they turn aside
from the sight. The early scenes of St. Stephen's
life have suffered severely, but the fresco of his
Burial is unrivalled in solemn and majestic beauty.
In the nave of a spacious Renaissance church, with
double aisles and classical pillars, we see the young
martyr, laid out on his bier, with quietly folded
hands, clad in a red robe. In the foreground two
women are seated on the marble pavement, weeping
bitterly, while an imposing assembly of lay and
ecclesiastical dignatories chant the last offices, and
two youthful disciples kiss the feet of their beloved
teacher. The expression of the aged priest, who
stands behind the officiating minister, clasping his
hands in anguish, and lifting his eyes to heaven with
prayerful resignation, is singularly natural and pathetic,
and reveals the Carmelite friar in a new light. Among
the prelates at the foot of the bier, the portly Carlo
de' Medici is introduced, robed in full canonicals and
wearing a red cap, and in the black-robed figure
further back we recognise the portrait of the artist,
whose name, Prater Filippus, is inscribed on the
pediment in the opposite corner.

154 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406.

After finishing these magnificent works, which
Michelangelo, we are told, not only admired, but
strove to imitate, Fra Filippo left Prato in 1465,
taking his wife, who had lately given birth to a
daughter named Alessandra, and his two children
with him, and went to Spoleto. Here his old
patrons, the Medici, had obtained the important work
of decorating the choir of the Cathedral, for this
strange protegi^ whom they had helped through so
many difficulties, and whom, in spite of his sins,
they never forsook. During the next four years, Fra
Lippo devoted his energies to these frescoes at Spoleto.
Chief among them is the great Coronation, on the
vaulting of the semi-dome, with its grand central group
encircled by a living, moving host of angels, dancing
on the clouds, singing and scattering flowers, playing
harpsichords, or swinging censers in the air. There is
none of the blessed peace and repose of Angelico's
Paradise, but all is gaiety and movement, light and joy.
The robes of the Madonna herself, and of Angels and
Saints, are thickly embroidered with gold, roses bloom
on the trees of the garden, and glittering seraphs wave
tall lilies in their hands or stoop and gather flowers.
The fresco has been sadly damaged and badly restored,
but enough remains to show us the fine conception
and glowing colour of the original work, which made
Vasari exclaim, when he stopped at Spoleto, on his
way from Rome, " Cosa molta bella ! FU gran uomo I "
— " What a beautiful thing ! Truly, the Friar was a
great man ! " The Death of the Virgin, on the wall of
the choir, recalls the Burial of St. Stephen, at Prato,
and the sorrow-stricken expression on the face of St.
John, who kneels with the other Apostles near the

1469] DEATH AT SPOLETO 155

bed, is touchingly represented. But instead of taking
place in a church, the scene is set in a rocky landscape,
and the form of Christ is seen throned on the clouds
receiving the Virgin's soul into heaven. Fra Diamante,
the Carmelite friar of Prato, who had become Fra
Filippo's assistant, and had shared his good and evil
fortunes, worked under him here and executed the
chief part of the remaining frescoes in the choir, after
-his master's death. For, long before the work was
ended, Fra Lippo died, on the 9th October, 1469,
leaving his orphan son in the charge of his faithful
follower, who finished the frescoes and gave the boy
a share in the 200 ducats which he received from the
Municipality of Spoleto. The master himself was
buried in the Duomo, where he had his last works,
under a tomb of red and white marble. Many years
afterwards, Lorenzo de' Medici begged the citizens of
Spoleto to allow Fra Filippo's bones to be removed
to Florence, and when this request was refused, sent
the painter's son, Filippino, to erect a monument above
his resting-place, and employed Angelo Poliziano to
celebrate his memory in a Latin epitaph. In his old
convent of the Carmine the friar was not forgotten,
and the following record of his death may be found
in a book which gives the names of the Carmelites
who died in the year 1469: —

" On the 9th of October, F. Philippus Thomae Lippi de
Lippis, of Florence, the famous painter, died at Spoleto,
where he was painting the choir of the Cathedral, and was
buried with great honour in a marble tomb in front of the
central door of this church. So rare was his grace in paint-
ing, that scarcely any other artist came near him in our

156 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI [1406-1469

times. The Chapel of Prato and many other marvellous
works show how great a master he was."

He had been guilty of many crimes and follies, but
the Church forgave him for the sake of the grace and
excellence of his art, and the friars of the Carmine
were still proud to claim him as their brother.

Chief Works —

Florence. — S. Lorenzo: Annunciation and Predella.
„ Accademia: 55. Madonna and Saints;

62. Coronation ; 79. Madonna adoring

the Child ; 82. Nativity ; 86. Predella

of St. Augustine, St. Frediano and

the Virgin ; 263. St. Anthony and

Baptist ; 264. Annunciation.
9, Uffizi: 1307. Madonna and Child, with

two Angels.
„ Pitti: 343. Madonna and Child with

Pomegranate.
Prato. — Duomo : Frescoes — Choir : Life of St.

Stephen and of the Baptist; Transept:

Death of St. Bernard.
Rome. — Lateran : Coronation, Saints and Donors.
,, Doria Gallery: Annunciation.
,, Mr. Mond: Annunciation.
Spoleto. — Duomo, Choir: Frescoes — Coronation and

Life of Virgin (in part).
Turin. — Gallery: 140,141. Fathers of the Church.
Berlin. — Gallery : 58. Madonna ; 69. Madonna

adoring Child ; 95. Madonna della

Misericordia.
London. — National Gallery : 248. Vision of St.

Bernard ; 666. Annunciation ; 667.

Seven Saints.
Richmond. — Sir Frederick Cook: Adoration of Magi,

Archangel Michael and St. Anthony.
Munich. — 1005. Annunciation; 1006. Madonna and

Child.
Paris, — Louvre. 1344. Madonna and Child with

Saints.

XII

FRANCESCO PESELLINO

1422-1457

Closely associated with Fra Filippo at one period
of his career was Francesco di Pesello, generally
known as Pesellino, to distinguish him from his
grandfather Giuliano. This interesting and attractive
painter, who was born in 1422, and early left an orphan,
grew up in the workshop of his grandfather, an archi-
tect and artist of some note, who painted banners and
cassoniy designed stained glass, and was one of the
competitors for the model of the Cathedral cupola.
Like all the best contemporary artists, he enjoyed
the friendship of the Medici, and on one occasion
Cosimo lent him a sum of money for his daughter's
dowry. Both the Peselli were distinguished animal
painters, and a wonderful group of caged lions, as
well as a hunting scene by Francesco's hand, adorned
a hall in the Medici palace. Here, too, the young
master was employed to paint predellas for altar-
pieces by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo, which are
mentioned in Lorenzo de' Medici's inventory. All of
these have disappeared, and the earliest of Pesellino's
works now in existence, is a predella on the legend of

St Nicholas, which originally adorned an altar in

16T

iS8 FRANCESCO PESELLINO lU2^■

Santa Croce, and has been in the Casa Buonarroti
rnce the d;ys of Michelangelo. Here the art.sts
skiU in telling a story and his remarkable power of
deUneating cLracter are already evident, toge her
wIa a certain elegance of form and gaiety o colour
which mark all his works. A little panel repre-
Ifnttg the trial of a noble Florentine youth, falsdy
charged of a crime by base-born accusers, is m the
MoSi collection at Bergamo, and belongs to the

"aLT Ws'gtn'dfather-s death, in 1446, PeselHno
befame more' closely connected with Fra F.hppo
and painted one of his finest predella for that
friar's altar-piece in the Medici Chapel of Santa
rZl These truly wonderful little panels, as
Vasari jult?y cal s them, are now divided between
Xe Loivre and the Accademia of Florence. One
of the best is the Miracle of St. Anthony of
Padua who is seen pointing from his place m
fhe pdpTt to the dead body of an usurer, whose
Learttas been removed and is discovered in a casket
of gold pieces. Both in conception and grouping,
thefe clever and animated scenes show the influ-
ence of Ta LiPPo's style on his young assistant,
but h's types are slender and more refined, and the
Hue and grey tones of his colouring produce a quieter
aLd more haLionious effect Two °th™ll panels
on the legend of St Sylvester belong to this perwd
and are now in the Doria Gallery m Rome. But
Se finL works we have from Pesdlino. hand a,e
his version of Boccaccio's story, the Marriage ot

two famous cassont with the story oi i^^v ,

1457] STORY OF DAVID 159

were formerly in the Palazzo Torrigiani, and are
now the property of Lady Wantage. In refinement
and beauty of type, in poetic conception and delicate
colouring, these panels surpass all Pesellino's earlier
works, while the variety of animals introduced in
David's triumphal procession are characteristic of
the master's style. Unfortunately, these charming
paintings were some of Pesellino's last works, and
on the 29th July 1457, he died, at the early age of
thirty-five, leaving a young widow, Mona Tarsia,
and several children, in great poverty. After Fra
Filippo settled at Prato, in 1452, Pesellino had taken
another artist, Piero di Lorenzo, a man of fifty or
sixty, to share his bottega, and work as his assistant ;
and shortly before his death the two painters agreed
to execute a large and important altar-piece for the
Church of the Trinitk, at Pistoia, for which they
were to receive 200 florins. But when Pesellino died,
the members of the Company of the Sta. Trinity
who had given him the order, handed over the un-
finished picture to Fra Filippo, and, two years later,
paid him the sum of 115 florins for completing the
work. This explains the curious discrepancies of
style which have puzzled critics in Pesellino's last
altar-piece. The general design is clearly his, but
the execution betrays the work of other hands,
and the face of God the Father bears a marked
resemblance to Fra Filippo's style. The central
portion of this altar-piece now hangs in the National
Gallery, while two Flying Angels from the upper
part belong to Lord Brownlow and Lady Henry
Somerset, and a panel with four Saints that originally

i6o FRANCESCO PESELLINO [1422-1457

formed one of the wings of the picture, has lately
been discovered at Buckingham Palace.^

Chief Works—

Florence.— Accademia: 72. Predella, St. Anthony,

SS. Cosimo and Damiano, Nativity.
,, Casa Buonarroti : St. Nicholas of Bari.

Bergamo. — Morelli Gallery: 9. Trial of a Floren-
tine; II. Story of Griselda.
Milan. — Poldi-Pezzoli Museum: 587. Pietet.
Rome.—Doria Gallery: Predella — Pope Sylvester.
Boston^ U.S.A. — Mrs Gardner: Triumphs of

Petrarch.
Chantilly. — Madonna and Saints.
London, — National Gallery: 727. Lady Wantage:

Story of David.
,, Col. Holford: Madonna and Saints.

Oxford. — University Galleries: 12, Meeting of

Joachim and Anna.
Paris. — Louvre: 1414. Miracle of SS. Cosimo

and Damiano, and St. Francis receiving

the Stigmata.
Berlin. — Gallery: 165 1. Crucifixion.

1 P. Baccio [Rivistd d'Arte, 1904; L. Gust, e R. Fry, Burlington
Magazine, 1909).

XIII
BENOZZO GOZZOLI

I 420- I 498

While the Carmelite friar was bearing Masaccio's
message in a more popular form to the world, a
follower of Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, was
continuing his saintly master's work on a lower
spiritual level, in a more homely and ordinary style,
This amiable and industrious artist, who painted a
larger number of frescoes than any of his contem-
poraries, had neither Angelico's inspiration nor Fra
Lippo's genuine artistic gifts. He studied Masaccio
and the Naturalists carefully, and tried to imitate
their clever foreshortenings, but he remained far behind
Paolo Uccello and his followers in knowledge of the
human form. His perspective is often faulty, and his
drawing careless and slovenly ; but as a story-teller
and illustrator he has few rivals, and the frescoes
which he painted with such marvellous rapidity are
of rare interest, as pages of contemporary history
which bring the life of the court and the life of the
schools, the Medici and the humanists, the labourers
in the vineyards and gardens of Tuscany, all in turn
before our eyes.

Benozzo, surnamed Gozzoli — the thick-throated —
was the son of a small Florentine tradesman — liter-

161 T

i62 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

ally a waistcoat-maker, named Lese di Sandro. He
was born in 1420, and like many of his contempor-
aries, learnt the trade of both painter and goldsmith
in his boyhood. From 1444 to 1447, he worked
with Lorenzo Ghiberti on the second of his Baptistery
gates, and acquired from him that taste for landscape
and architecture, and love of pleasant details and acces-
sories, which marked his future work. Sir Joshua
Reynolds' well-known remark, that buildings and
landscape occupied so large a place in Ghiberti's bas-
reliefs that his figures were only secondary objects,
might be applied with equal truth to many of Benozzo's
frescoes. In 1447, Fra Angelico, under whom
Benozzo may have studied as a boy, took the young
artist with him to Rome, and employed him both
in the Vatican Chapel and at Orvieto. Here
Benozzo's hand can be clearly traced in the pyra-
midal groups of Saints and Prophets on the roof
of San Brizio's Chapel, and when Fra Angelico
returned to Florence, his assistant offered to com-
plete the work which he had left unfinished. But
the Directors of the Cathedral Works declined his
proposal, and the decoration of the chapel walls was
only carried out fifty years later by Luca Signorelli.
The frescoes of the Cesarini Chapel in Ara Coeli,
which Benozzo next undertook, have all perished,
excepting one figure, which is exactly imitated from
Angelico, and represents St. Anthony of Padua with
a flame in one hand and a book in the other.

In 1450, Benozzo was invited to Montefalco, one
of the hill-set cities of Umbria, on the heights above
the valley of the Clitumnus, and painted the altar-
piece of the Assumption, now in the Lateran, as

1498] FRESCOES AT MONTEFALCO 163

well as several frescoes in the Church of S. Fortunate
and twelve scenes from the life of St. Francis in
the choir of the Franciscan church. The old stories
which Giotto had painted 150 years before, in the
neighbouring town of Assisi, are here repeated by
Angelico's pupil in his master's style, with the
addition of groups of men and women in contem-
porary costumes, and many homely incidents of
his own invention. The portraits of Dante, Giotto,
and Petrarch are introduced among the medallions
of Franciscan saints under the windows, each with
an appropriate Latin inscription, which reminds us
of the humanist tendencies of the age. Dante is
described as " a theologian, ignorant of no learning,"
Petrarch as "the laureate, monarch of all virtues,"
while Giotto is called "the foundation and light of
painting." A side-chapel in the same church
was also decorated by Benozzo, and contains a
graphic representation of St. Jerome pulling out the
thorn from the lion's foot, in the presence of a band
of terrified friars. In 1453, he executed another
series of frescoes on the life of S. Rosa of Lima in a
convent at Viterbo, which were still in existence in
the seventeenth century. On his way back to
Florence, Benozzo visited Perugia and painted the
Madonna and Saints, which is now in the town
gallery, and bears the date of 1456. Both this
altar-piece and the Montefalco frescoes were destined
to have a marked influence on the development of
the Umbrian School. The poetic naturalism and
love of ornament, together with that tender
devotional feeling which Benozzo inherited from
his master, appealed in an especial manner to the

1 64 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420.

dwellers in these Umbrian valleys, and a Foligno
artist, named Pier Antonio, who had worked with
the Florentine master at Montefalco, handed on
these traditions to Bonfigli and his companions at
Perugia.

Meanwhile Benozzo returned to Florence, where
the Medici welcomed him with open arms. Andrea
del Castagno and Pesellino had died lately, Fra
Angelico was no more, and Fra Filippo had gone
to Prato in disgrace. The moment was a fortunate
one and Benozzo soon found himself entrusted with
the important task of decorating the Chapel of the
Medici Palace. The subject chosen by his patrons
was the Adoration of the Magi, that favourite theme
of Florentine painters, which Gentile da Fabriano had
already surrounded with romantic charm, and which
Benozzo now set forth in one great fresco on the
walls of this little oratory. All the festive pomp and
splendour of court-pageants which the Medici had
brought into the simple life of old Florence, all the
beauty of the May time and the glamour of faery
romance are gathered up in this triumphal procession
of the Three Kings, journeying over hill and vale on
their way to the manger of Bethlehem. They ride
out, richly attired in brocades and shining armour,
mounted on chargers adorned with sumptuous trap-
pings and resplendent with gold and jewels, while
fair-haired pages hold their horses* bridles or lead
their greyhounds in leash. Following in their steps
are a brilliant train of courtiers, with horses, dogs and
leopards, winding their way over the rocky Apennines
and down the green slopes, where tall bell -towers and
white villas and chapels peep out among the olive

LORENZO DE' MEDICI (PALAZZO RICCARDi) — BENOZZO GOZZOLI.

\_To /ace page 164.

1498] MEDICI CHAPEL 165

and cypress groves, and narrow paths lead down
into fruitful valleys watered by clear streams.

The special event which Cosimo de' Medici wished
to commemorate was the General Council, which had
been removed from Ferrara to Florence in 1439, and
the visit of the Greek Emperor, who had been magnifi-
cently entertained by him within these palace walls.
Accordingly, in the first two kings we have portraits
of Joseph, the venerable Patriarch of Constantinople,
and of John Palaeologus, a fine-looking, dark-bearded
prince, wearing a coronet on his turban, and a flowered
robe of gorgeous green and gold. In the youthful
king on the white horse, with the blue cap and
jewelled crown jauntily set on his curling locks, and
the green laurel boughs about his bright young face,
we recognise the boy Lorenzo, Piero de' Medici's
eldest son, and the hope of all his noble house. Close
beside him ride a princely escort, among whom are
his grandfather, the aged Cosimo, on a white horse
led by a youthful page, with his two sons, Piero
and the handsome Giovanni, whose death, four years
later, was the bitterest grief of his father's declin-
ing years. Marsilio Ficino and the painter him-
self mingle in the familiar throng of scholars and
humanists. But the pageant does not end here.
From the pomp and glory of earthly splendour we
turn to the cradle of Bethlehem, and are given a
glimpse of the unseen. This Benozzo has painted
for us on the east wall of the Chapel, round the
altar where Fra Filippo's Madonna adoring the Child-
Christ hung of old. The background has changed,
and instead of the olive-clad slopes and scarred
heights of the Apennine we have the " divine forest "

1 66 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

of Dante's Paradiso^ where bright-winged seraphs tend
the flowers of this new Eden, and waves of heavenly
melody rise and fall on the luminous air. Here
cypress and pines grow tall and straight, roses and
pomegranates hang in clusters from the boughs, and
blue-breasted peacocks trail their starry plumage over
smooth green lawns, while choirs of angels chant the
Gloria in Excelsis^ or kneel in silent adoration round
the manger throne.

Such was the vision which AngeliCo's scholar
painted in the hot summer months when the Medici
were enjoying rest and villeggiatura in their favourite
country houses. Three letters which Benozzo
addressed to Piero, who was entertaining illustrious
guests at Careggi, show how entirely his heart was
in his work and how anxious he was to perfect every
detail of his frescoes. In the first, written on the
lOth of July, he acknowledges a letter from Piero,
who had, it appears, taken objection to certain small
cherubs in the corner of the fresco, and explains that
they cannot interfere with the rest of the picture,
since only the tips of their wings are allowed to be
seen. But since Piero desires it, he will paint two
white clouds in the sky and cause the offending
seraphs to disappear. He would come to Careggi
himself and see Piero on the subject, if it were not
for the great heat, which will, he fears, spoil the azure
which he has begun to lay on. But he hopes Piero
will come to see the work before this part of the
scaffolding is removed. In the meantime two florins
will suffice for his present needs. " I am working
with all my might," he adds, " and if I fail, it will be
from lack of knowledge, not from want of zeal. God

1498] LETTERS TO PIERO DE' MEDICI ib;

knows I have no other thought in my heart but how
best to perfect my work and satisfy your wishes."

On the nth of September, Benozzo writes another
letter to Piero, whom he calls his dearest friend —
Amico mio singularissimo — reminding him that he had
not sent him the forty florins for which the painter
had asked, in order that he might be able to buy
corn and provisions, while they were still cheap.
" I had," he adds, " a great thought, which was not
to ask you for any money until you had seen the
work, but necessity compels me to make this request,
so forgive me, for, God knows, I only seek to please
you. And I must remind you once more, to send
to Venice for some azure, because this wall will be
finished this week, and I shall need the blue colour
for the brocades and other parts of the figures."

On the 25th, he writes a third letter, telling Piero
of a Genoese merchant who has 1500 pieces of fine
gold for sale, some of which he will require for
his work, and begging for ten more florins to pay
for the azure, which he has bought at two florins
the ounce, from the Prior of the Gesuati, whose
ultramarine was famous throughout Italy.

"I had meant to come and see you last Sunday, but
the bad weather frightened me. Now I am at work on
the other wall, and hope to finish the fresco in another
week. And it seems to me a thousand years until your
Magnificence shall be here to see for yourself if you are
satisfied with the work ! May Christ keep you in his
favour 1— Your Benozzo, Painter in Florence."

The pains which Benozzo bestowed upon his
task were not thrown away, and we find no trace

1 68 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

of the haste and carelessness of drawing which too
often marred his work. The subject was admirably
suited to his powers, and none of his later frescoes
are as entirely successful as these in the Medici
Chapel.

His position as the best fresco-painter of the day
was now established, and new commissions poured
in upon him from all sides. In 1461, he painted
the Madonna and Saints, with angels crowned with
roses, and goldfinches on the alabaster steps of the
throne, which is now in the National Gallery. This
fine altar-piece was executed for the Confraternity
of S. Marco, which had its Oratory close to the
Dominican convent, and Benozzo was expressly
desired to imitate Fra Angelico's Virgin, in the
neighbouring church, as exactly as possible, and
to allow no assistant to help him, but to promise
to do the whole work himself, as well, or, if possible,
better than any other which he had yet accomplished.
About this time he married a girl named Mona
Lena, who was twenty years younger than himself
and bore him a family of seven children. In the
same year he bought a house in the Via del
Cocomero, as well as lands outside the walls, and
was in prosperous circumstances during the rest
of his life, being, as Vasari remarks, both inde-
fatigable in his industry and irreproachable in his
conduct.

In 1463, he went to the mountain city of San
Gimignano, and there, in Dante's "town of the
beautiful towers," he painted another great cycle of
frescoes on the life of St. Augustine. This time his
patron was Domenico Strambi, a learned Augustinian

1498] SAN GIMIGNANO 169

friar, who had lectured in philosophy at Oxford and
Paris, and went by the name of Doctor Parisinus.
The seventeen subjects with which the painter
adorned the choir of the Augustinian church were,
no doubt, chosen by the learned doctor, whose
portrait appears in another large fresco of St.
Sebastian protecting the people of San Gimignano
from the plague ; but the charming fancy and lively
humour of the different stories are all Benozzo's
own. His love of children finds full play in the
early scenes of Augustine's school life, where the
boys are seated at lessons in the portico, and the
stern schoolmaster points approvingly at the diligent
child with one hand, while the other is lifted to
strike an unruly scholar. The unlucky victim
appears hoisted on the back of a bigger boy, looking
round, half curious and half frightened, to see what
will happen to him, and another rosy-cheeked
child peeps up from his lesson-book to gaze at his
comrade in disgrace. No less interesting is the
fresco which represents Augustine teaching rhetoric
in Rome. The scene is laid in a stately Renaissance
hall, with villas and gardens in the background,
and on the marble pavement a little dog with
shaven back is sitting up on its haunches, while the
scholars stand or sit around with varying expressions
of attention or indifference on their faces, and one
youth is engaged in turning back the richly trimmed
sleeve of his fur mantle. Benozzo's taste for
architecture is displayed in the Gothic towers and
palaces of Tagaste, and in the scene of Augustine's
departure from Rome, where he manages not only
to introduce the chief monuments of the imperial

170 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

city — the Coliseum, Pantheon, Column of Trajan and
Pyramid of Cestus — but also the towers and battle-
ments, the loggias and campaniles of the modern
city into a single picture. Troops of cavaliers and
pages in rich brocades, leading gaily caparisoned
horses, escort the Saint on his journey, and fair
Milanese ladies, in contemporary costumes, sit under
Augustine's pulpit, listening to his sermons, or
watch by the death-bed of Monica. Here and
there we find little bits of life reproduced with rare
felicity — young mothers with children clinging
fondly to their arms, girls carrying baskets, and
boys at play in the streets, or else a knot of friars
bending down and pressing their heads close to-
gether, eager to catch the new teacher's words. The
last and finest of the whole series is the Death
of the Saint. Here, like most Quattrocento masters,
he takes Giotto's Death of St. Francis, in Santa
Croce, for his model, and represents Augustine in
mitre and pontifical robes, lying on a rich mortuary
couch, surrounded by a large company of monks
and ecclesiastics, who perform the last rites and
give vent to their grief in the most passionate
manner. The variety of expression on the faces
of the mourners is very striking, while the grouping
of the figures and the graceful lines of the convent
buildings in the background make an admirable
picture. Unfortunately, Benozzo too often traded on
his reputation, and the numerous altar-pieces which
he painted for neighbouring churches and convents,
during the three years that he spent at San
Gimignano, are executed with a haste and careless-
ness that are quite unworthy of him. No doubt,

1498] AT PISA 171

he was largely assisted by inferior artists, and the
resemblance which many of his figures bear, both in
type and stature, to those of Fra Lippo, is explained
by the fact that one of the Carmelite's former
assistants, Giusto di Andrea, worked under him
at San Gimignano. It was to intercede for Giusto's
brother, who had been caught in the act of stealing
the monks' bed-clothes at Certaldo, that Benozzo
wrote a letter to young Lorenzo de' Medici, whom he
addresses as " Most dear to me in Christ," lamenting
the scandal which his apprentice had caused, and
explaining that up till this time he had always
borne an excellent character. "But perhaps," he
adds, "God has allowed this to happen for some
good end." In the meantime he thanks Lorenzo —
who had already, it appears, intervened in the
matter — for his good offices with the Vicar of
Certaldo, and ends with renewed protestations of
devotion to himself and his house, praying that Christ
may be with him in eternity.

This letter is dated 4th July, 1467, when Benozzo
was still busily engaged on his works at San
Gimignano. By the end of the year, however, he
had left for Pisa, where a new and gigantic task
was awaiting him. This was the decoration of the
north wall of the Campo Santo, which had been
left unfinished ever since Puccio da Orvieto had
painted his three subjects of the Creation, the Death
of Abel, and the Flood, eighty years before. On the
9th of January, 1468, he signed a contract with the
magistrates of Pisa, by which he agreed to cover
the remainder of the north wall with frescoes, at the
price of sixty-six florins for each subject, " a task,"

172 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

says Vasari, " immense enough to discourage a whole
legion of masters." But Benozzo was not the man
to shrink from any work, however arduous, and the
twenty-four large frescoes which he painted during
the next sixteen years, on the wall of the Campo
Santo, show that, whatever the limitations of his
art might be, his invention was as fertile, his fancy
as fresh and bright as ever. The first and best of
the series, a work to which Benozzo devoted more time
and pains than usual, and which he only finished by
the end of the year 1468, is called the Drunkenness
of Noah. But although Ham is seen in the corner
jeering at the sleeping patriarch and the famous figure
of the Vergognosa di Pisa, looking back through the
fingers of her hand, stands in the background, this
subject is only an episode in the picture, which is
really a charming representation of a Tuscan vintage.
We see the peasants trampling on the fruit in the
wine-press, the youths and maidens picking the purple
grapes, which hang in luxuriant profusion from the
pergola above, and carrying them in baskets on their
heads, while Noah and his wife, as proprietors of the
vineyard, taste the new-made wine, and two frightened
children, who have been attacked by a barking dog,
take shelter behind the folds of the patriarch's robe.
The same pastoral scenes, the same free and joyous
country life, enliven the later subjects. Youths and
maidens dance hand in hand at Rachel's wedding-feast,
shepherds stand at the doors of their tents counting
their flocks, young mothers nurse their babes in the
shade of cypress and palm, or lead their little ones,
as they go to draw water from the well. Elsewhere
we meet with troops of hunters bearing falcons on

1498] CAMPO SANTO FRESCOES 173

their wrist, and gay cavaliers with greyhounds and
horses, riding down the mountain-side, or see fair-
faced Florentine maidens walking dry-shod over the
Red Sea.

A Roman triumphal arch fills up the background
of the scene, where Esau sells his birthright for a
mess of pottage, and in the other subjects Renaissance
palaces and antique temples, Gothic churches and
classical monuments, pyramids and cupolas, appear
crowded together. The Tower of Babel rears its
lofty pile to heaven between the palaces and terraced
gardens of a populous city and the rural stillness of a
green valley, watered by running streams ; and Cosimo
de' Medici, the great builder, looks on, surrounded by
his sons and grandsons, and his favourite Platonists—
Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Platina.

The Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon, another
subject, in which a goodly array of Florentine
scholars and courtiers are introduced, has been
deplorably ruined, and the whole series has suf-
fered terribly from damp and neglect. The exe-
cution shows a decided falling-off from Benozzo's
earlier works, which is, no doubt, due to the haste
with which many of the frescoes were painted, and
to his employment of inferior assistants. The draw-
ing of the forms is defective, the figures are stiff and
wooden, and lacking in freedom and animation, and
there is a certain monotony of form and expression
throughout the series which becomes wearisome.
Benozzo, we feel, is not an original thinker, and more
than once he goes back to his old master, Ghiberti,
and imitates the compositions of the bas-reliefs on
the Baptistery gates. Most of all, we feel his de-

174 BENOZZO GOZZOLI [1420-

ficiency in scenes like the Destruction of Sodom,
where, in spite of all his efforts, he fails to impart the
energy of despair, or even the haste of a panic-stricken
crowd, to the fugitives on whose heads the avenging
fire is in the act of falling. He is far more success-
ful in a subject such as the Adoration of the Magi,
which he introduces among these Old Testament
subjects, over the chapel door, and in which he
appears himself, mounted on a brown horse. Here
again, he could fall back on Ghiberti and Angelico's
models, while many of his own figures in the Medici
Chapel and the church of San Girnignano are repeated.

The final payment which Benozzo received for the
last fresco of the series, the Visit of the Queen of Sheba,
bears the date of May 11, 1484, During the sixteen
years that he worked at the Campo Santo, he had found
time to execute frescoes at Vol terra and Castel
Fiorentino, as well as altar-pieces for the churches and
convents of Pisa and the neighbourhood, the best of
which is the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, now in
the Louvre. In this fine picture, which was originally
painted for the Cathedral of Pisa, the Angelic Doctor
is represented, throned between Plato and Aristotle,
with his vanquished rival, Guillaume de St. Amour,
the learned professor of the University of Paris, lying
at his feet, while the Pope is seen below pronouncing
the decree of the Saint's canonization.

The painter had taken his family with him to Pisa,
where he bought a house of his own in the Via S. Maria,
and brought his old father, Lese di Sandro, to spend his
last days under his roof. But he still owned a house
in Florence, and paid occasional visits to his native
city. In the income-tax return of 1480, he describes

1498] HIS DEATH AT PISA 175

himself as sixty, and his wife as forty, and gives the
ages of his seven children as ranging from eighteen to
one year. His eldest son, a youth of eighteen, is
described as still going to school ; the second boy, of
thirteen, is studying mathematics ; while the dowry of
his eldest daughter, Bartolommea, a girl of fifteen, who
married a Florentine burgher, is fixed at 350 florins, and
that of his youngest, the infant Maria, has not yet been
determined. The last mention we find of our artist
is in January 1497, when he valued Alessio Baldovi-
netti's frescoes in the Trinitk church, together with
Perugino, Filippino Lippi and Cosimo Rosselli. Early
in the next year he died, and was buried in the Campo
Santo, immediately under his fresco of the history of
Joseph, in a tomb which the citizens of Pisa had given
him as a reward for his labours twenty years before.
Above his grave is a Latin epigram, which expresses the
admiration of his contemporaries for the art which had
made birds and beasts and fishes, the green woods and
the blue vault of heaven, youths and children, fathers
and mothers, all live again on these walls, as no other
master had ever done before him. Such was the
high meed of praise which Benozzo won in his life-
time, and we who judge his merits with more critical
eyes may yet own in him a master whose heart beat
with quick response for the fair and pleasant things
of life, and tender interests of hearth and home, and
across whose vision there sometimes dawned gleams
of a higher truth and of a more perfect beauty.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Palazzo Riccardi: Medict Chapel: Frescoes
— Procession of the Three Kings,
Adoring Angels.

176 BENOZZO GOZZOLI 1420-1498]

Chief Works {continued) —

Florence. — Uffizi : 1302. Predella of Pietk and Saints.
„ Palazzo Alessandri : Predella — St. Zenobius,
St. Benedict, Simon Magus, St. Paul.
Castelfiormtino : Frescoes — Madonna and Child,

Saints, Burial of the Virgin.
Ctrtaldo : Frescoes — Descent from the Cross.
San Gimignano,—S. Agostino: Choir: Frescoes-
Saints and Evangelists, Assump-
tion, Life of Virgin, Life of
St. Augustine.
,, Chapel: Fresco — St. Sebastian.

,j Collegiata: Choir: Madonna and

Child with Saints. Entrance
•wall: Fresco — St. Sebastian.
J, Pinacoteca: Fresco — Crucifixion.

, , Monte Olivet 0 : Fresco — Crucifixion.

J J S. Andrea: Madonna and Child.

Montefalco, — S. Fortunato : Frescoes — Madonna,
Saints and Angels, Madonna and
Angels.
„ S. Francesco: Choir: Frescoes—Life of

St. Francis.
Perugia.— Gallery : Sala VII, : 20. Madonna and

Child with Saints.
Pisa,— Gallery : Sala VI. : 23. Madonna and Child
with Saints and Angels ; 24. Madonna and
Child with St. Anne.
„ Campo Santo : Frescoes from Old Testament.

Adoration of Magi, Annunciation.
Volterra.—Duomo : Fresco— Procession of Magi.
Rome.—Ara Cceli: Fresco— St. Anthony and Angels.
,, Lateran: 60. Madonna and Child with
Saints and Angels.
Berlin. — Gallery : 60B. Madonna, Saints and Angels.
London. — National Gallery : 283. Madonna and

Child with Saints and Angels.
Paris. — Louvre: 13 19. Triumph of St. Thomas

Aquinas.
Milan. — Brera ' 475. Miracle of St. Dominico.
Vienna. — Gallery : 26. Predella — Madonna and
Child with Saints.

XIV
COSIMO ROSSELLI

1439-1507

COSIMO RosSELLi, an artist who was strongly in-
fluenced by Benozzo Gozzoli, and who, like that
master, chiefly painted frescoes, was the son of a
builder, living in the Via del Cocomero. He was born
in 1439, and, at the age of fourteen, entered the shop
of Neri de' Bicci, an inferior artist who manufactured
works of art at a low rate, and drove a prosperous
trade, with the help of his sons and brothers and a
large number of assistants. When he left Bicci*s
shop, at the end of three years, Cosimo may have
found employment under Benozzo, or worked with
Alesso Baldovinetti — who was one of his masters,
according to Baldinucci — ^to whose style his technique
and colouring show a marked resemblance. His first
dated work, a Madonna and S. Anne, of 147 1, at Berlin
and another early picture of St. Barbara trampling on
a warrior, in the Accademia of Florence, display the
angular draperies and harsh tones of the Naturalists,
with far less vigour of drawing. But like Benozzo,
whom he resembles in his love of architectural detail
and homely incident, he is seen to greater advantage
in his frescoes. In 1476, he painted the Conver-
sion of S. Filippo Benizzi in the cloisters of the

M 177

178 COSIMO ROSSELLI i439-

Annunziata, where Baldovinetti had already executed
his Nativity. The learned young doctor of Padua
is seen on his knees before a classical temple, gazing
on the vision of the Virgin floating through the
air in a chariot, while in the other half of the
picture, he is in the act of taking the habit of the
Servi friars, and the towers of Florence rise on the
banks of Arno, in the distance. After this, he was
employed to execute frescoes in churches at Fiesole
and Lucca, and must have attained considerable
reputation, since he was among the Florentine painters
who were summoned to Rome in 1480, by Pope
Sixtus IV., to decorate his newly erected chapel in
the Vatican.

Although Cosimo was a far inferior artist to any
of the illustrious band of masters who worked with
him in the famous chapel, between October 1481 and
August 1483, the three frescoes which he painted in
the Sistina rank among his best works. The Last
Supper is the least successful of the three, and has
been entirely re-painted. The figures are carefully
grouped, but are lacking in life and expression, and
the most interesting part of the picture are the four
men in contemporary costume who are introduced,
together with a playful little dog, in the foreground.
There is more energy and animation in the youths
and maidens, dancing round the golden calf, and the
group of spectators in the frescoes of Moses descend-
ing from Sinai and breaking the tables of the law. In
the third subject, both the Sermon on the Mount and
the Healing of the Leper are introduced. The figure
of Christ, standing on the green mound, with uplifted
hand, speaking to the assembled listeners^ seems to

1507] SISTINE CHAPEL 179

have caught something of the dignity and nobleness
of Ghirlandajo's Christ in the same chapel ; while the
mothers and children sitting on the grass, and the
boy feeding the lamb, are more in Benozzo Gozzoli's
manner. But in the finely draped figures and ex-
pressive faces of the listeners, on the left, we trace
the hand of a better artist, Cosimo Rosselli's favourite
pupil, Piero, who Vasari expressly says, came to
Rome with his master, and painted the beautiful
landscapes of hill and woodland in the background
of both these frescoes. This same refined and
imaginative painter, Piero di Cosimo, is now generally
recognised to be the artist to whom we owe the
Passage of the Red Sea, the fourth fresco formerly
ascribed to Cosimo Rosselli in the Sistine Chapel.

Vasari allows Cosimo Rosselli to have been weak
in drawing and invention, and very inferior to his
companions, but declares that Pope Sixtus IV. was
so much delighted with the profusion of gold and
ultramarine which he lavished on his frescoes, that
he gave him the prize which he had promised to
the best master, much to the disgust of the other
painters who were working in the Sistina at the same
time, and who had laughed at the poverty of his
conception and execution. This story, however, is
probably a fable of Vasari's invention, and may not
be more accurate than the rest of his account of this
artist's life and works.

After his return from Rome, in i486, Cosimo
Rosselli painted his fresco of a Miraculous Chalice
being borne in procession over the piazza, in the
Church of S. Ambrogio, which, in spite of the injuries
that it has suffered from the smoke of candles

x8o COSIMO ROSSELLI [1439-

and incense, is certainly his best work in Florence.
The fair-haired youth, wearing a violet cap and red
vest with black sleeves, in the group of spectators
standing on the piazza, is said to be Pico della
Mirandola, the brilliant humanist and favourite
companion of Lorenzo de' Medici. An altar-piece
of the Assumption, which Cosimo painted in this
same church, bears the date of 1498, and a Corona-
tion of the Virgin, in the Chapel of the Giglio family,
which he executed for the Cistercian monks' old
church of Cestello, now S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi,
was only begun in December 1505. A year after-
wards, in November 1506, Cosimo Rosselli made his
will, and the considerable amount of property which
he owned refutes Vasari's assertion that he died very
poor, having consumed all his substance in the
vain pursuit of alchemy, to which he devoted his
last years. He died on the 7th of January, leaving
only one illegitimate son, named Giuliano, who
became an architect. No work bearing Rosselli's
name is to be found in the National Gallery, but
quite recently Mr Berenson has recognised this
master's hand in the little picture of the Combat
between Love and Chastity, ascribed to the Floren-
tine School, and which certainly bears a marked
resemblance both to the similar allegory at Turin
and to the Vision of the Virgin in the fresco of
S. Filippo Benizzi in the Servi church.

Although Cosimo's creations are, for the most part,
dull and formal, and lack the charm of true artistic
inspiration, he was an excellent teacher, who under-
stood the technical side of his art thoroughly, and
numbered some of the best painters of the next

iSo;] LIST OF WORKS i8i

generation among his scholars. The sculptor,
Benedetto da Majano, was one of his closest friends,
as well as the executor of his will, and it was at
his recommendation that the promising child Baccio
della Porta, afterwards known as Fra Bartolommeo,
was placed in Cosimo Rosselli's shop.

Chief Works —

Florence, — Annunziata : Cloisters . Fresco — S.
Filippo Benizai.
„ S. Ambrogio : Fresco — Procession

of the Miraculous Chalice.
», S, M. Maddalena de* Pazzi: Coronation

of the Virgin.
9, Accademia : 52. SS. Barbara, John and

Matthew ; 160. Nativity.
II Uffizi : 63. Coronation of Virgin.

65. Adoration of Magi. 65A.
Madonna della Stella.
, 1280 bis: Madonna and Child,
Saints and Angels.
„ Corsini: 339. Madonna and Angels

adoring Child,
Fiesole. — Duomo : Salutati Chapel : Frescoes.
Lucca. — Duomo: Fresco — Story of the Cross.
Rome. — Vatican: Sistine Chapel: Frescoes —
Sermon on the Mount; Moses destroy-
ing the Tables of the Law; Last Supper.
Turin.— Gallery : 369. Triumph of Chastity.
Berlin.— $g. Madonna and Child, Saints and
Angels.
59A. Madonna and Child with St. Anne

and other Saints.
71. Entombment.
Cambridge. — Fitzwilliam Museum: 556. Madonna

and Child with four Saints.
London. — National Gallery : 1196. Combat of Love
and Chastity.
Mr Butler: St. Katharine of Siena
>f founding her Order.

Oxford.— University Galleries: 19. SS. Dominic
and Nicholas.

XV

ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO
1431-1498

PIERO POLLAIUOLO

1443-1496

The first decisive progress in fifteenth century
painting had come firom the sculptors Ghiberti and
Donatello, and the next step in advance was due to
another group of goldsmiths and workers in bronze,
who were themselves painters as well as sculptors, and
who, by their resolute and persistent endeavours, suc-
ceeded in giving their pictures the same plastic relief
and modelling that we see in carved metal and stone-
work. Chief among these was Antonio Pollaiuolo,
whom Benvenuto Cellini describes as the best
draughtsman of his day in Florence. " He was so
great a draughtsman that not only all the goldsmiths
worked from his designs, but that many of the best
sculptors and painters were glad to make use of
them, and by this means attained the highest
honour. This man did little else, but he drew
marvellously, and always practised the same grand
style of drawing." The few paintings and drawings
by Antonio's hand which are still in existence prove
the truth of Cellini's words, and show not only the

wonderful energy and precision of his drawing, but
18S

1431-1498] THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS 183

the great influence which he exerted on con-
temporary painters. Both Luca Signorelli and
Sandro Botticelli owed much to his example, and in
his admirable drawing of the nude, he may claim
to be the precursor of Michel Angelo himself.

Antonio was born in 1431, and was some twelve
years older than his brother Piero, who became his
assistant in most of his works. These two brothers,
whose lives and labours were so closely bound to-
gether, derived their surname of PoUaiuolo from their
grandfather, who kept a poulterer's shop. Their
father, Jacopo d'Antonio Benci, also surnamed del
PoUaiuolo, was one of the goldsmiths employed by
Lorenzo Ghiberti, and is said to have executed a
wonderful quail in the ornamental work of one of the
Baptistery gates. Antonio was apprenticed to his
father, but, in 1459, opened a large and handsome
shop of his own in the Cow- market, and soon acquired
the reputation of being the first metal-worker in
Florence. He probably received his first instruction
in painting from Andrea del Castagno, whom Vasari
mentions as Piero's teacher, and was strongly in-
fluenced by Donatello, while both brothers adopted
the technique of Alessio Baldovinetti, and followed
him in the use of new oil glazes and varnishes.
From 1460 to 1480, Antonio executed a large number
of works in bronze and silver, including the famous
relief of the Baptist's Birth, for the silver retable of
the Baptistery, and supplied cartoons of twenty
subjects from the life of the Baptist for the wonder-
ful vestments of embroidered brocade still preserved
in the Opera del Duomo. These designs show a
rare talent for composition, while both his paintings

i84 THE BROTHERS POLLAIUOLO [i43i-

and drawings reveal that close study of the antique
and mastery of anatomy which made Vasari say that
he treated nudes in a more modern style than
any artist before him. " He not only dissected many
human bodies to study their anatomy, but was the
first to investigate the action of the muscles and
afterwards give them their due place and order in
his drawings of the human frame."

The first paintings by the Pollaiuoli of which we
have any record, are three figures of Hercules,
each five braccia high, which, we learn from Antonio
himself, were painted by him and his brother Piero
for the Medici palace, in 1460. The wonderful little
panels of Hercules strangling Antaeus, and wrestling
with the Hydra, still preserved in the Uffizi, were
probably original studies for these works. Of the
six life-sized Virtues which the brothers and their
assistants painted for the tribunal of the Mercatanzia,
two, those of Faith and Prudence, are probably the
work of Piero. The smooth polished surface of the
picture, the rich ornamental details of the throne
and embroidered draperies of the purple mantle,
betray the goldsmith's hand ; but while most critics
recognise Piero's style in the painted figures, that
of Antonio is evident in the grand cartoon of Charity,
still to be seen on the back of the ruined picture.
Three imposing figures of St. Eustace, St. Vincent and
St. James, also in the Uffizi, are the work of Piero,
and were originally painted, in 1466, for the same
sepulchral chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, which
Baldovinetti adorned with frescoes, in the church
of San Miniato. The life-size portrait of Galeazzo
Sforza, Duke of Milan, in his blue mantle sown with

1498] ST. SEBASTIAN 185

golden lilies, was painted by Piero when that prince
visited Florence in 1471, and hung in the Medici
Palace for many years ; while his fresco of St
Christopher, at San Miniato outside the gates,
which excited the admiration of Michel Angelo,
may be the same which has now been removed to
the Metropolitan Museum at New York. Another
characteristic work by Piero, the Annunciation, now
at Berlin, is remarkable for its fine Renaissance
architecture and variegated marbles, as well as for
the profusion of pearls and gems which adorn the
angel's robes and the Virgin's chair. Three kneeling
cherubs, playing the organ, lute and viol, are seen in
the inner chamber, and the open windows display a
wide view of Florence and the Val d'Arno. The
same Museum contains Antonio's admirable little
picture of David, standing bare-headed, with sling
in his hand and legs astride, over Goliath's head — a
marvel of youthful life and triumphant action. But
the most famous and best preserved of all the
Pollaiuoli's paintings is the great St Sebastian
which Antonio painted, in 147 5, for the chapel of
the Pucci in the Servi church, and which was bought
from the Marchese Pucci, in 1857, by the trustees
of the National Gallery. This picture of the Saint
bound to the trunk of a tree in the foreground
of a wide Tuscan landscape, and surrounded by six
archers, either aiming their shafts at his body or load-
ing their cross-bows, has no particular beauty of line
or grouping, but as a masterpiece of vigorous action
and life-like movement it remains unrivalled. " The
work," Vasari records, "was more praised than any
other ever painted by Antonio. In his determination

i86 THE BROTHERS POLLAIUOLO [i43i

to imitate nature to the best of his power, he repre-
sented one of these archers leaning his shaft against
his heart and bending down to load his bow with
all the might of his strong arms : you see the veins
and muscles swelling, and the breath being held back,
as he puts his whole power into the effort. Nor was
this the only figure executed with rare skill, but all
the others, in their various attitudes, show the skill
and labour which he devoted to this work, which
Antonio Pucci fully recognised when he gave him
300 florins, saying that he knew this sum barely
paid him for the colours." A study for this
admirably modelled figure of St. Sebastian, who
lifts his eyes to heaven, above the confusion of
bent bows and flying arrows was in the Morelli
collection, and is now the property of Signor Frizzoni.
The National Gallery is fortunate in possessing
another of this rare master's works — the charming
little picture of Daphne flying from the embrace
of Apollo, who seizes her by the skirts of her green
robe, only to see her arms stiffen into laurel boughs
at his touch. The picture of Tobias led by the
Archangel Raphael, which, Vasari tells us, was
painted by the brothers for Or' San Michele, is now
at Turin, where it was long ascribed to Botticelli, but
has all the characteristic features of the goldsmith-
painters. The wide landscape with its rocky heights
and castles, winding river and zigzag road descending
into the fertile plains, recalls alike the background
of the St. Sebastian, and that of Baldovinetti's fresco
in the cloister of the Annunziata ; while in the little
white dog of Bologna breed, which runs before the
Angel, Morelli recognises a household pet and com-

1498] ANTONIO IN ROME 187

panion of the brothers, who figures in more than
one of their pictures. Probably the latest painting,
executed by the Pollaiuoli was the altar-piece of
the Coronation of the Virgin, in the choir of S.
Agostino at San Gimignano, which in style and
colouring closely resembles the Berlin Annunciation,
and bears the signature of Piero del Pollaiuolo, with
the date 1483.

In 1489, Antonio Pollaiuolo was invited to Rome
by Pope Innocent VIII. to execute the bronze tomb
of his predecessor, Sixtus IV., as well as his own
monument, in St. Peter's. The high esteem in which
the artist was held in Florence is proved by a letter
which Lorenzo de' Medici addressed to his envoy
in Rome, on this occasion, recommending the said
Antonio, as the " greatest master in the city, and one
who, in the opinion of every intelligent person, had
never been equalled." On the other hand, we have
a proof of Antonio's affection for the Medici in a
letter which he wrote from Ostia, in July 1494, to
one of the Orsini, promising to execute his bust
in bronze, and begging him in return, to obtain leave
for him from Piero de' Medici, to visit his farm near
Poggio, fifteen miles from Florence. In consequence
of the plague then raging in central Italy, no
travellers from Rome were allowed to come within
twenty miles of the city ; but Antonio feels sure that
Piero will give him the necessary permission, since
he has always been a loyal and devoted servant of
his house, and as much as thirty-four years ago, he
and his brother executed the works of Hercules which
Orsini had seen in the Palazzo Medici. But although
Antonio may have wished to see his old home again,

i88 THE BROTHERS POLLAIUOLO [1431-

and had completed his magnificent tomb of Sixtus
IV. in the previous year, he remained in the service
of the reigning Pope, and was joined by his brother
Piero, who also settled in Rome for the rest of his
life. Lorenzo de' Medici was dead, and the troubled
state of Florence offered artists few inducements to
return. On the 4th of November 1496, Antonio
made a will, leaving 5000 gold ducats to each of his
daughters. Marietta and Maddalena, and a piece of
land near Florence to his brother Piero, who was
at that time very ill and not likely to live. Piero
must have died soon afterwards, for we find that his
natural daughter, Lisa, received a dowry of 150 lire
from her uncle on her marriage in the following year ;
and when Antonio himself died, on the 4th of February
1498, he was buried, by his express desire, in the same
grave as his brother, in the church of S. Pietro in
Vincula.

A week later the Signory of Florence, hearing
that the Cardinal of Benevenuto and Monsignore
Ascanio Sforza, owed the dead master certain sums
for works which he had executed, sent orders to
Domenico Bonsi, envoy of the Republic in Rome,
desiring him to use all his influence "on behalf of
Mona Lucrezia, widow of this most celebrated sculptor,
since he was one of our citizens, and a man unique
in his art, and therefore deserves that we should help
his heirs for his sake, and as those who hold such
excellence in the highest honour."

Chief Works —

Antonio :

Florence. — Uffizi: 73. Cartoon for Charity ; 1153.

Hercules and Antaeus, Hercules and

the Hydra.

1498]

LIST OF WORKS

189

Chief Works {continued)
Antonio :

PiBRO :

Florence. — Torre di Gallo: Fresco — Dance of

Nudes.
Turin. — Gallery : 97. Tobias and the Archangel.
Berlin. — Gallery: 7 3 a. David.
London. — National Callery : 292. Martyrdom of
St. Sebastian ; 928. Apollo and
Daphne.
Newhaven^ U.S.A,—Jarves Collection: Hercules
and Nessus.

Florence. — S. Niccold : Assumption.

»i Uffizi: 30. Portrait of Galeazzo Sforza;

69. Hope ; 70, Justice ; 71. Tem-
perance ; 72, Faith ; 1301. St.
Eustace, St. James and St.
Vincent ; 1306. Prudence ; 3358.
Profile of Lady.
«» San Miniato : Capella Portogallo •

Angels.
San Gimignano. — Collegiata: Choir : Coronation

of Virgin.
Berlin. — Gallery: 73. Annunciation, and Angels.
New York. — Metropolitan Museum : 85. Fresco —
St. Christopher.

XVI

ANDREA VERROCCHIO

1435-1488

Andrea di Cione, surnamed Verrocchio from his
first master, the goldsmith Giuliano Verrocchio, was
the contemporary and rival of Antonio Pollaiuolo.
Like that master, Andrea was a goldsmith and
sculptor in the first place, and only painted pictures
occasionally ; and, like his own great pupil Leonardo,
he studied mathematics and geometry, and became an
accomplished musician. This talented and many-
sided artist was the son of an oven-maker, named
Michele di Cione, who afterwards joined the Guild
of Stone-cutters, and in his old age held a small
office in the Customs. Andrea's mother, Madonna
Gemma, died when he was a child, leaving a large
family, one of whom, a sister named Tita (Mar-
gherita), came to live as a widow in her brother's
house, and whose children Andrea treated as if
they were his own. The artist himself, the youngest
of the family, was born in 1435, and at seventeen had
the misfortune to kill one of his companions, a lad
named Antonio, who was employed in the woollen
trade, by throwing a stone which struck him on
the temples, when at play together outside the Porta
della Croce. He was tried for this accidental murder

190

I435-I488] WORKS IN BRONZE 191

a few months afterwards, but acquitted of inten-
tional homicide. After serving his apprenticeship in
Verrocchio's shop, Andrea became an assistant of
Donatello, whom he helped in his works in S. Lorenzo,
and whom he succeeded in the favour of the Medici.
Besides the bronze tombs of Cosimo, and of his
sons Giovanni and Piero, in S. Lorenzo, he executed
a variety of other works for Lorenzo, including the
statuettes of the youthful David in the Bargello, and
the wonderful Putto with the dolphin, which origin-
ally adorned the fountain of Villa Careggi. Andrea
also restored antique statues for the Medici palace,
designed the helmets worn by Lorenzo and Giuliano
at their Tournaments, and planned many of the
decorations and pageants which delighted the eyes
of Florence on festive occasions. In 1477, he executed
one of the silver reliefs for the Baptistery dossal, on
which Antonio Pollauiolo was employed, and, soon
after 1480, was summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus
IV., to execute silver statuettes of the Apostles, for
his new chapel in the Vatican; while in 1483, he
finished the noble group of the Incredulity of St.
Thomas for Or' San Michele, a work which a con-
temporary, Landucci, describes in his diary as the
finest ornament of that church, and the most beauti-
ful head of Christ that has ever been made.

But Andrea was too versatile a genius to confine
himself to any one form of art, and after acquiring
great renown as a sculptor he turned his attention to
painting. "He was never idle," says Vasari, "but
always worked at either sculpture or painting, and
often passed from one thing to another, in order not
to get tired by working too long at the same subject

192 ANDREA VERROCCHIO [i43S-

And he designed many cartoons for pictures, and
began to paint them, but always left them un-
finished." The only picture now in existence that
can with any certainty be ascribed to Andrea, is
the Baptism, in the Accademia, which he painted
for the Vallombrosan friars of S. Salvi, and which
is one of the two altar-pieces mentioned by Vasari.
Here we find the same vigorous drawing, the same
knowledge of anatomy and accuracy of detail,
together with the same use of oil glazes on a tem-
pera surface, which are common to all the Florentine
goldsmith-painters. Both style and technique are
closely akin to those of Baldovinetti and the
Pollaiuoli, but there is a higher refinement and grace
in the forms, and a truer sense of beauty about
the whole. The long-haired Christ standing in the
river Jordan with clasped hands and eyes closed in
silent devotion, bears a marked likeness to Andrea's
noble bronze statue in Or' San Michele, while the
foremost angel with the golden locks and fair face,
kneeling under the palm-tree on the bank, is said
to be by the hand of Leonardo, who was at this time
working in Verrocchio's bottega. The youthful charm
of the figure and the fine effect of softened light in
the rocky landscape, as well as the skilful handling
of oils, all point to this conclusion ; but it is impossible
to speak with certainty on the subject, or to decide
the exact share which Leonardo had in his master's
works. The beautiful little Annunciation, formerly
in the Church of Monte Oliveto, and now in the
Uffizi, was formerly given to Leonardo, but is now
generally held to be Verrocchio's work. Here we
have the same lovely effect of twilight sky behind

1488] PORTRAITS 193

the pines and cypresses of the garden, but the type
of the faces, the decorative stone- work of the Virgin's
desk, and the general character of the whole are still
in the goldsmith's style. A half-length Madonna, at
Berlin, looking down on the laughing Child, who
stretches out both arms to her, and a Virgin and
Child between the Angels, in the National Gallery,
which has been the subject of much discussion, are
now ascribed by several critics to Verrocchio. Both
of these pictures were formerly given to the Pollaiuoli,
but bear far more resemblance to Andrea's terra-
cotta reliefs, while the angels in the National Gallery
painting recall those in the Baptism at Florence.

Another group of pictures in which Mr Berenson
and other critics recognise Verrocchio's hand, are the
three profile-portraits of young Florentine women,
which are respectively in the Poldi-Pezzoli Museuro
at Milan, the Berlin Gallery and the Uffizi. These
famous busts, with the same fair hair elaborately
coiled and plaited, the same square bodice of rich
brocade, and the same clear-cut features, painted in
pale tints in flat relief against deep blue sky, are
plainly the work of a sculptor, and bear a strong
likeness to Andrea's own carved busts in the
Bargello. They belong, we feel, to the same class
of work as those which Vasari describes when he
speaks of Verrocchio's drawings of women-heads,
distinguished by a beautiful style and arrangement
of the hair, which Leonardo da Vinci often imitated,
because of their rare beauty. At the same time,
their strong individuality and portrait-like character
remind us that Andrea was one of the first artists
to take plaster-casts of living personages, from which

N

194

ANDREA VERROCCHIO

D435-

he afterwards made busts, and that "twenty masks
taken from nature " were among the works which he
executed for the Medici. A picture of another class,
the fine portrait of a Florentine lady with rippling
hair and refined features, which still bears Leonardo's
name, in the Lichtenstein Gallery, at Vienna, can
with more certainty be ascribed to Andrea's hand,
and may possibly represent Lucrezia Donati, the
Queen of Lorenzo's Tournament. But little as
remains to us of Andrea's painted work, and
doubtful as is the attribution of these few pictures
it is at least certain that he was the master of two
of the greatest masters of the next generation — the
Umbrian Perugino and the Florentine Leonardo. In
these busts and statues, which wear so life-like and
speaking an expression, in these admirably drawn
heads and delicately rounded cheeks, with full eyes
and curly locks, in the bronze Christ of Or' San
Michele, and the lovely angel of the Uffizi, we
have the germ of Leonardo's art. Here, dimly fore-
shadowed in the master's creations, we find already
that power of expression and exquisite grace which
is the secret of the scholar's indefinable charm.

Andrea never married ; his art was enough to fill
his whole life, as Leonardo found in his turn, and his
pupils were dear to him as his own children. To the
one he loved best of all, Lorenzo di Credi, he left, by
his will, the task of finishing the great equestrian
statue of Bartolommeo CoUeoni, which the Venetian
Senate had invited him to execute. The work had
been given him in 1479, but it was not till the summer
of 1488, that his model was finally completed ; and
just as he was about to cast the statue in bronze, he

FLORENTINE LADY.

(mUSEO POLDI-PEZZOLI, MILAN) — ANDREA VERROCCHIO.

\To face page 194

1488] DEATH AT VENICE 195

fell ill and died in Venice. After his death, the task
of casting this statue was given to the Venetian
sculptor Leopardi, but his faithful scholar, Lorenzo
di Credi, brought home his master's remains to
Florence and buried them in his father's grave in
San Ambrogio.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Accademia: 71. Baptism of Christ.

„ Uffizi: 3450. Annunciation ; 1204. Pro-

file of Lady.
Milan, — Museo Poldi-Pezzoli: 157. Profile of Lady.
Berlin. — Gallery : lo^a. Madonna and Child ; 1 614.

Profile of Lady.
Lonaon. — National Gallery : 2.(^(i. Madonna and

Child with Angels.
Vienna. — Lichienstein Gallery: 32. Portrait of Lady.

XVII
SANDRO BOTTICELLI

1444-15 10

The two separate tendencies which mark the course
of Florentine art during the first half of the fifteenth
century meet in the person of Sandro Botticelli. A
pupil of Lippi and a fellow-workman of the Pollaiuoli,
this most interesting master inherited the traditions
of both schools, and combined the dramatic art of
Masaccio's followers, and the goldsmith-painters'
energy of line, with a feeling as human as that of Fra
Filippo, as spiritual as that of Angelico. Botticelli is
in an especial manner the representative of Lorenzo
de' Medici's age. ^ The range of his art is as wide as
the culture of the Renaissance, and his work reflects the
different currents of thought, the aspirations and
ideals of his contemporaries, more fully than that of
any other Florentine painter. But over all he_dirows
^il?_S.l5I?12y^ of his ownjgersonality, the spen_of^ fine

artistic nature cmd3he passion" of ^ profoundly

sympathetic Heart Whether he paints Greek
goddesses "oF" Saints and Madonnas, it is the same^
intensely persjmal ty^e, the same sad and wistful
expression thatmeets our eyes andl invites out

*""' — ■ — - 186' "

1446-1510] HIS POPULARITY 197

sympathy. This ra^ejunionj)/ gifts. jr^^
during his life-time, not only the favourite painter of
the Magnifico, but the most popular niasterm^Flqr^ice.
^The extraordinary dem^T"whichsprung up for his
works towards the close of the centuryf is shown by
the immense number of Madonnas, bearing the stamp
of his invention, but executed by imitators and assist-
ants, which may be seen in every gallery. And al-
though his fame died away in the blaze of Michel-
angelo's renown, and his works were not held worthy
of preservation by the art-loving Grand-dukes of the
seventeenth century, the present generation has
witnessed a curious revival of Botticelli's popularity.
Perhaps no painter of the Renaissance has so peculiar
a fascination for modern minds. f^Some of us are
charmed by his wonderful sense of life and movement,
by his mastery of line and decorative design. ' Others
are moved by the poetry of his imagination, by his
strong human emotion and mystic, feeling Alessandro
Filipepi was the youngest child of a prosperous tanner
named Mariano, who lived in the parish of Ognissanti,
and had four sons. The eldest of these, Giovanni, was a
broker by trade, and the surname of Botticello — which
he acquired from the barrel that was the sign of his
shop — clung to the younger members of his family.
Born in 1444, Sandro was first apprenticed to a gold-
smith, but soon began to paint, and worked under Fra
Filippo Lippi both at Florence and Prato. When, in
1467, the Carmelite went to Spoleto, Botticelli was
already an independent master, and Vasari tells us
that after Lippi's death, two years later, his scholar
was held to be the best painter in Florence.

The earliest works we have from his hand are two

198 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

panels, one long, the other round, of the Adoration of
the Magi, in the National Gallery. Both are there
ascribed to Botticelli's pupil Filippino, but bear far
more likeness to the work of that artist's father, Fra
Filippo, who may himself have had a share in the com-
position. The Virgin and Child certainly resemble the
friar's types, but the animated throng of spectators and
their expressive faces reveal the hand of the scholar.
The next group of Sandro's works — the seated figure
of FortezzUy and the little pictures of Judith that once
adorned Bianco Capello's studio — show that after his
old master left Florence, he must have been closely
associated with the Pollaiuoli brothers. The Fortezza^
indeed, is a companion picture to the Virtues painted
by these masters for the Mercatanzia, and is executed
in the same sculptural style and pale colouring as
their works. The same embroidered draperies,
jewelled armour and variegated marbles adorn both
Pollaiuolo and Botticelli's figures, but the bent head
and weary, yet resolute, expression of Sandro's Forti-
tude show his finer and more imaginative conception.
The same peculiar type of face, long neck, angular
features, high cheek-bones and dreamy eyes, are
^ repeated in his Judith, as, with sword in one hand and
olive branch in the other, she returns over the hill-
country to Bethulia, strong in the might of the great
deed which she has done. In her swift action and
fluttering garments we already see the love, pf move-
ment which is a characteristic feature of Sandro's art,
while the dramatic quality of his imagination is
equally apparent in the companion subject, where the
servants and friends of Holofemes look with grief and
horror on his headless corpse.

I5I0] EARLY WORKS I9§

Botticelirs genius soon attracted Lorenzo de'
Medici's notice, and at his command the young artist
painted a ^. Sebastian for the church of S. Maria
Maggiore. This noble figure, now in the Berlin
Gallery, was probably executed before Antonio
Pollaiuolo's more famous version of the subject, and
although inferior as an exhibition of technical skill to
the elder master's work, shows a far higher sense of
beauty and power of expression. To these same
early days we may assign the lovely Chigi Madonna,
now in America, with the youthful Angel, crowned
with green bay leaves, offering a dish of grapes and
ripe ears of wheat to the Child.

In 1474, Botticelli was invited to assist Benozzo
Gozzoli in the decoration of the Campo Santo, and
spent the summer months at Pisa, where he began a
panel of the Assumption, for the Duomo, and received
payments for the ultramarine which he employed,
but never seems to have finished his picture. His
presence was required at home, and during the next
few years he became closely associated with the
fortunes of the Msdici. Lorenzo's keen eye early re-
cognised the quick sympathy and fine poetic feeling
which fitted Sandro to be the painter of these classic
myths and fancies dear to the scholars and humanists
who met in the halls of the Via Larga, or spent the
summer days at the Magnifico's pleasant country-
houses. It was for his kinsman Lorenzo di Pier
Francesco's villa of Castello that Botticelli painted his
famous pictures of the B[rth of Venus, the Primavera,
and Mars and Venus, which breathe the charmed
atmosphere of Lorenzo's songs and Poliziano's
idylls. All three of these pictures, so full of the

200 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

spirit of the Renaissance, and so strangely unlike
the Greek world of which the Florentine humanists
were enamoured, owe their inspiration to Poliziano's
Giostra, In this unfinished poem he had celebrated
the Tournament held on the Piazza of Santa Croce, in
1475, when the handsome Giuliano de' Medici, clad in
silver armour, bore away the prize in the presence
of his adored lady, Simonetta. This wondrous Venus
floating on the waves and blown by the winds to the
laurel groves on the summer shore, is there described
exactly as Sandro painted her, laying one hand on
her snowy breast, and the other on her long tresses of
yellow hair. The poet had sung of the roses flutter-
ing in the air and of the nymph in her white robe
patterned over with blue corn-flowers, waiting to
welcome the new-born goddess, and spreading out
a pink mantle sown with daisies to fold round her
white limbs. And in the first Canto of his Giostra^
Poliziano had repeated that favourite tale of the Loves
^ of Mars and Venus, which Lorenzo himself afterwards
made the theme of one of his poems, and which is
the subject of Botticelli's panel in the National Gallery.
Here Venus, robed in gold-embroidered draperies,
reclines in a woodland glade, watching the strong,
broad-chested god of war, with limbs relaxed and
drowsy head, lying on the grass sunk in deep slumber,
while little goat-footed cherubs play with his armour
at her feet. As a study of line and a purely decora-
tive work, this composition is an admirable one ; as an
interpretation of a Greek myth by a Florentine
painter it is of rare interest.

Once more, in his beautiful vision of Primavera,
Sandro has given utterance to that fulness of joy in

iSio] THE PRIMAVERA 201

the return of spring and the beauty of the young May-
time which was the favourite theme of Tuscan poets.
All the bright and pleasant imagery of Lorenzo's
Ambra^ or the Rusticus of Poliziano, lives again in
this fair picture of the " laurel groves which sheltered
the singing-birds who carolled to the Tuscan spring."
Here Qi^een Venus holds her court and Spring '^
comes, garlanded with roses, while flowers spring up
at her feet, and the Graces dance hand in hand
under myrtle bowers. There Zephyr sports with
Flora, dropping roses from her lips, and Mercury, in
the form of Giuliano, scatters the clouds of winter,
all unaware that Cugid is aiming an arrow at his
heart. But the shadow of coming doom hung over
these dreams of love and joy. Before Poliziano had
finished his poem, fair Simonetta died suddenly, and
was borne, with her face uncovered, to the grave, amid
the tears and lamentations of all Florence. Two
years afterwards, on the 26th April, 1478, Giuliano
was murdered, by the treachery of the Pazzi, during
high mass in the Duomo, and fell pierced with
nineteen wounds before the altar. Botticelli was
employed to paint the effigies of the conspirators
on the walls of the Palazzo Pubblico, and when, in
1480, Lorenzo returned safely from his perilous
mission to the court of Naples, Sandro celebrated ,,,
the triumph of the Medici over their foes in his ^
picture of Pallas subduing the Centaur. Vesuvius
and the Bay of Naples are seen in the distance,
and in the foreground the Centaur, emblem of
anarchy and crime, cowers before the victorious
goddess, who, wreathed with olive boughs and wear-
ing the interlaced rings of the Medici on her

2oi SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446

white robe, represents the triumph of peace and
wisdom.

The portraits of Lorenzo's mother, Lucrezia Torna-
buoni, and of " la bella Simonetta" which Vasari tells
us were both painted by Sandro, have disappeared,
but his fine bust of Giovanni de' Medici, holding a
medal of his father Cosimo, is preserved in the Uffizi,
as well as the striking portrait of Giuliano in the
Morelli collection. Three generations of the family
are represented in the Adoration of the Magi which
Lorenzo employed Botticelli to paint for Santa Maria
Novella, as a thank-offering for his escape from the
assassin's hand. We see a marked departure from
old traditions in the way in which the religious
significance of the subject is sacrificed, and the
sacred story transformed into an apotheosis of the
Medici. Cosimo, a venerable, white-headed form in
green and gold mantle, kneels before the Child ; his
son Piero, in a scarlet robe, looks round at his brother
Giovanni, and the lamented Giuliano stands behind
them, clad all in black, with his thick, dark locks
overshadowing his melancholy face. Lorenzo himself
stands at his horse's side in the left-hand comer,
where the donor is usually introduced, and on the
opposite side, we recognise the gortrait of the. painter,
wearing a long orange mantle and looking over his
shoulder with a keen, thoughtful expression on his
strong face. The picture is a masterpiece of group-
ing and modelling, and bears a close likeness to
Leonardo's unfinished Adoration, in the Uffizi.
Sandro had known the great master, who was
but six years his junior, from his early days in
Verrocchio's workshop, and is the only painter

PALLAS (PALAZZO PITTi) SANDRO BOTTICELLL

\_Tofnce pa^e 202

I5I0] FRESCO OF ST. AUGUSTINE 103

whom Leonardo mentions by name in his TrattatOy
where he speaks of him as " our Botticello."

The Vespucci family, to which Simonetta belonged,
were among Botticelli's best patrons. For their palace
in the Via de' Servi he painted a series of graceful
subjects, " full of beautiful and animated figures," set
in richly carved walnut frames. The panels of the
Story of Virginia, at Bergamo, and the Death of
Lucrezia, now in America, agree with this description ;
but the violent action and exaggerated gestures in
the similar pictures on the Miracles of St. Zenobius
point to a later period. For the Vespucci Botticelli
also painted the noble fresco of St Augustine at his
desk in the church of Ognissanti, which in its wonderful
energy and rapt expression offers so marked a contrast
to the cold decorum of Ghirlandajo's St. Jerome, on
the opposite wall. This work bears the date of 1480,
in which year, we learn from the register, Sandro was
living in the Via S. Liicia near Ognissanti, with his
old father Mariano, who was eighty-six years old
and unable to work — " non fa piu nulla!' Giovanni,
the eldest son, is here described as a broker;
Antonio, the second, a goldsmith, "who also sells
books," is at Bologna and has a large family ; while
Simone, who, as a boy, had gone to Naples in
the service of a F'lorentine merchant, is still living
there, and Sandro, whose age is given as thirty-
three, is a painter and "works in the house when
he chooses."

In the following year, Botticelli went to Rome, on
the recommendation of Lorenzo de' Medici, to assist
in the decoration of Pope Sixtus the Fourth's new
chapel which, built by a Florentine architect, Dolci,

ao4 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

was now to be adorned by the best Florentine masters.
On the 27th of October, 148 1, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo,
Cosimo Rosselli, and Perugino signed a contract, by
which they agreed to paint ten frescoes from the Old
and New Testament, on the chapel walls, in the space
of six months. According to Vasari, Sandro was
appointed Director of the Works, and we recognise his
hand in the early figures of the frieze of Popes which
runs along the upper part of the walls, as well as in
three of the large compositions from the life of Moses
and Christ, the type and anti-type. The first of these,
generally known as the Temptation of Christ, occupies
the central place on the wall, immediately opposite the
papal throne, between Pinturicchio's Baptism and Ghir-
landajo's Calling of the Apostles. Satan is seen in the
habit of a Franciscan friar, first pointing to the stones
at the feet of Christ, then standing at His side on a
pinnacle of the temple, and finally hurled into space
by the word of the Lord. But these three scenes,
which connect Sandro's fresco with the rest of the
series, are only introduced as minor incidents, and the
real subject of the picture, as Dr. Steinmann has lately
shown, is the Purification of a Leper according to the
law of Moses. The rites in use on this occasion are
minutely depicted. On the right, the leper's wife is
seen bringing her offering of two doves, a girl, bearing
wood for the burnt offering, advances on the left, and
in the centre of the picture the high priest receives
the blood of the victim in a golden bowl from the
hands of a youth, while the leper, still feeble and
suffering, is slowly led up the steps of the altar by
his friends. The Renaissance temple in the back-
ground is an exact reproduction of the facade of the

I5I0] FRESCOES IN ROME 205

hospital of S. Spirito, which had been lately erected
by Pope Sixtus, while portraits of his nephews,
Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II.,
holding a white cloth in his hands, and Girolamo
Riario, bearing the staff of papal Gonfaloniere, are
introduced in the group on the right. The foliage
cf the oak, the badge of the della Rovere family,
figures prominently among the trees in the foreground,
and the whole composition is evidently intended to
be a glorification of Pope Sixtus. The second fresco
suffers from the same confusion of subjects and want
of unity, and contains no less than seven different
scenes from the early history of Moses. But the
details^are full of charm, and in the central episode
of Jethro's Daughter at the well, we have a lovely
idyll of pastoral life. Sandro rarely painted a more
graceful figure than this of Zipporah standing among
her maidens under the palm-trees by the stream, with
a myrtle wreath in her hair, and a distaff and apple-
branch, the symbol of labour and its reward, in her
hand. In the third fresco, the Destruction of Korah,
the grand figure of Moses standing before the altar
with his rod stretched out to destroy the rebellious
people, gives a certain unity to the whole, and the
scene of tumult and confusion is rendered with
dramatic vividness. The whole series abounds in
reminiscences of classical architecture and sculpture,
and shows how profoundly Sandro was impressed by
the monuments of ancient Rome. The portrait-heads
in the fresco of Korah are especially remarkable for
beauty and character, and among the dignitaries of
the papal court, in sumptuous robes, we recognise
the dreamy eyes and finely -cut features of the

«o6 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

painter himself, clad in a sober suit of black, and
wearing an artist's cap on his curly locks.

The frescoes of the Sistina were not finished until
August 1483, and before he left Rome, Botticelli
painted another Adoration of the Magi, probably the
version now at St. Petersburg, in which a ruined arch
and a group of horses, evidently suggested by the
famous statues on Monte Cavallo, are introduced.
This little picture is a gem of the purest water. There
are fewer figures than in the Uffizi altar-piece, but these
are instinct with life and passion, and are set in a wide
and lovely landscape, which goes far to redeem Sandro
from Leonardo's reproach of having painted tristis-
simi paesi. In 1484, Botticelli returned to Florence,
but does not seem to have ever executed the import-
ant commission of decorating the Hall of Audience in
the Palazzo Pubblico, which had been given him in his
absence. In the following year, he painted the Berlin
altar-piece of the Madonna, throned in a leafy bower
between a haggard St. John the Baptist and a white-
bearded St. John the Evangelist. The delicate
foliage of palm and olive, cypress and myrtle, and
the tall white lilies and bowls of red and white roses
along the marble parapet, are painted with exquisite
care, and the whole effect is singularly decorative.
This fine picture, originally executed for the Bardi
Chapel in San Spirito, is one of the few of Botticelli's
Madonnas to which we can assign a date with any
certainty, since a document in the Guiccardini
archives records a payment of twenty-eight florins, in
February 1485, to the carpenter who supplied the
wood, and of seventy-eight florins, in the following
August, to " Sandro del Botticiello " for the time and

iSiQ] FRESCOES OF VILLA LEMMI 207

materials which he had spent upon the work. In
i486, our painter was employed by Lorenzo de*
Medici's uncle, Giovanni Tornabuoni, to decorate the
hall of his villa near Fiesole, in honour of his son's
wedding. Two of the frescoes which he painted on
this occasion were discovered under a coat of white-
wash in 1873, and removed to the Louvre. In the
one, the bridegroom, Lorenzo Tornabuoni, is welcomed
by the seven Arts and Sciences, and Philosophy seated
on a throne in their midst. In the other, his bride,
Giovanna degli Albizzi, a charming maiden clad
in a red robe, receives the gifts of four fair
damsels, who represent the cardinal Virtues. Sandro
excelled in the representation of these allegorical
subjects, and his tribute to Lorenzo's culture and
Giovanna's virtues won the applause of all Florence.
But ere long a change passed over his art. In 1489,
Savonarola came to Florence and began to preach,
first in his convent church of San Marco, then to the
crowds who flocked to hear him in the Duomo. His
voice had a strange fascination for the scholars and
artists of Lorenzo's immediate circle. Poliziano and
Pico, Cronaca and Michelangelo, all heard him gladly,
and took part in the great revival. And Sandro
caught what Vasari, in his contemptuous manner,
calls the prevailing frenzy, and threw himself into the
Frate's cause with all the energy of his nature. He
illustrated Savonarola's sermons, painted banners for
his processions, and designed a large engraving of the
Triumph of Fra Girolamo. He did not, like some of
his brother artists, throw his pagan studies on the
Bonfire of Vanities, but he gave up painting secular
subjects, and. in obedience to Savonarola's teaching

2o8 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

no longer introduced portraits of his contemporaries
into his sacred pictures.

In the absence of dates, it is difficult to say with
any certainty which of Botticelli's numerous Madonnas
belong to this period ; but there can be little doubt
that these sorrowful Virgins, burdened with a mysteri-
ous sense of coming woes, were inspired by the
eloquent and impassioned words in which the great
preacher paints the Mother of Sorrows. There is the
lovely Madonna of the Pomegranate, with the six
child-angels bearing lilies and choir-books, in the
Uffizi, and the Mother nursing her Child in the
Ambrosiana and turning the leaves of the missal, in
the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum. There is the noble S.
Barnabi altar-piece of the throned Virgin, surrounded
by angels bearing instruments of the Passion, and
worshipped by six saints, who represent different types
of struggling humanity — Michael and Katherine in
their youthful beauty, the scholar-saints Ambrose and
Augustine between the ascetic Baptist and Barnabas,
the Son of Consolation. There is the great Coronation
— which was ordered for Savonarola's own convent
church by the Guild of Silk Weavers — with its troop
of angels scattering roses and dancing on the clouds
of heaven in a tumult of wild rapture, and below, the
aged St. John and St. Jerome, fired with the same
triumphant joy. Above all, there is the famous
tondo of the Magnificat, which in beauty of design
and depth of feeling surpasses all others. The Virgin,
wearing a green and gold mantle, and a transparent
veil over her fair tresses, is in the act of dipping her
pen into the ink, to write her song of praise on the
pages of an open missal, and the Child on her knee

I5I0] THE MAGNIFICAT 209

looks up in her face with a sudden flash of inspiration.
Two angels place a crown upon her head, two others
hold her book and inkstand, and between the bowed
faces we catch a lovely glimpse of the Arno valley.
At this moment when Mary realises all her glory, when
angels crown her brows, and the Child guides her pen
to write the words that pronounced her blessed, the
sword pierces her heart with a foretaste of coming
agony. In this wonderful picture Sandro has attained
an ideal of divine tenderness and sorrow which few
painters have ever equalled.

An unfinished picture, evidently designed by our
master, has lately been brought out of the magazines
of the Ufiizi, and, although coarsely re-painted, is of
deep interest as showing his close connection with
the piagnone movement. The seven magistrates of
Florence are represented kneeling before Mary and
her Child, while Savonarola himself, standing by in his
Dominican habit, points with outstretched arm to the
new-born King, and turning to Lorenzo de' Medici at
his side, adjures him to own the supremacy of Christ.
A great concourse of horsemen and spectators are
crowding through the city-gates, and among the fore-
most figures we recognise the portraits of Benivieni,
the favourite poet of the Medici, who had become a
devout piagnone^ and of Leonardo, who was one of
the architects summoned by Savonarola to draw up
plans for the hall of the Great Council. The picture
was evidently painted to commemorate the events of
1495, when, after the death of Lorenzo and expulsion
of his sons, Christ was proclaimed King of Florence,
the City of God.

Through the troublous times that followed, Sandro

o

jio SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

remained in his old home. In 1496, Michelangelo
addressed a letter from Rome to Lorenzo di Pier
Francesco, the only Medici who dared remain in
Florence, under cover to Botticelli, bearing the
piagnone motto — Christusl And in 1498, the year
of Savonarola's execution, Sandro and his brother
Simone, we learn from the registers, were living
together in the Via Nuova, and owned a farm and
vineyard outside the Porta San Frediano. Simone,
who had lately returned from Naples, was a zealous
piagnone^ who was present at the trial by fire, and
left a curious chronicle of contemporary events which
has been lately discovered in the Vatican. One
incident which he records is that of a conversation
held on the evening of All Souls, 1499, in Sandro's
workshop, which he describes as being at that time an
Academy of unemployed painters, who met there
often and disputed much about Savonarola. That
evening as they gathered round the fire, about eight
o'clock, and argued after their wont, Sandro solemnly
adjured Doffo Spini, a leading partisan of the
Medici, who had been present at Fra Girolamo's
trial, to tell him what they found in the saintly
man to deserve so vile an end. Doffo replied :
" Sandro, must I speak the truth ? We never found
in him any venial sin, much less any mortal sin."
Then Sandro asked : " Why did you make him die
so vilely ? " And Doffo replied : " It was not I,
but Benozzo Federighi who was the cause of the
prophet's death. But in truth, if he had been set
free and sent back to San Marco, the people would
have sacked our houses and cut us all to pieces."
This curious narrative throws light on two of

iSio] ALLEGORY OF CALUMNY 211

Botticelli's last pictures, the Calumny — which he
painted towards the end of his life for his intimate
friend Antonio Segni — and the Nativity, in the
National Gallery. The subject of the former is
taken from Lucian's account of the picture by
Apelles, which Alberti quoted in his "Treatise on
Painting," but the fierce strife of factions in Florence,
and the tragedy of Savonarola's end, may well have
stirred the master to paint this allegory of the
violence and injustice of man. The scene is laid
in a stately portico adorned with antique statues,
where King Midas, wearied by the importunities
of Suspicion and Ignorance, receives Calumny, a
richly-clad woman, who drags the prostrate youth
Innocence by the hair. Envy, Treachery, and
Intrigue attend her steps, and Remorse, an old
hag in ragged clothes, looks back regretfully at
Truth, who, standing deserted and alone, points
upwards in calm certainty that her mute appeal
will be heard in heaven. Through the pillars of
the open loggia we look out on a wide waste of
waters, bounded by no further shore, which gives
an indefinable sense of dreariness — the expression
of the painter's conviction that truth and justice
were nowhere to be found on earth. The Nativity
was painted a few months after that November
evening when Sandro extorted Doffo Spini's con-
fession of the martyred friar's innocence, and a
Greek inscription on the panel explains its mystic
intention :

"This picture I, Alessandro, painted at the end of the year
1500, in the troubles of Italy, in the half-time after the time,
during the fulfilment of the Eleventh of St. John, in the Second

Mt$ SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-

Woe of the Apocalypse, in the loosing of the devil for three
years and a half. Afterwards, he shall be chained according to
the Twelfth of John, and we shall see him trodden down as in
this picture."

The Holy Family, as usual, form the central group,
and the Shepherds and Magi kneel on either side. A
troop of angels, clad in symbolic hues of red, white,
and green, sing the Gloria in Excelsis^ on the pent-
house roof, and in the heavens above, twelve more
seraphs dance hand-in-hand, swinging olive -boughs
and dangling their golden crowns in an ecstacy of
joy. In the foreground the devils are seen crawling
away to hide under the rocks, while rejoicing angels
fall on the necks of Savonarola and his martyred
companions, — the witnesses slain for the word of their
testimony, as told in the Revelation of St. John. So
Botticelli would have us know that in these dark
times when vice and wickedness ran riot in the streets
of Florence, and contemporary writers tell us that
there was " no reverence for holy things, nor fear of
shame," his faith in the Friar never faltered, and that
he still looked forward to a day when the prophet's
word should be fulfilled and good triumph over evil.

Sandro's old connection with the Medici saved
him from the persecution which overtook the leading
piagnoni, and during his last years he was chiefly
engaged in illustrating Dante's great poem. He had
always been a student of the divine poet, and prob-
ably executed designs for the plates in the first
printed edition of the Divina Commedia^ published
by Landino in 148 1, while a line from the Paradiso: —

" Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio" —
is inscribed on the throne of the Madonna which he

iSio] DANTE DRAWINGS 213

painted for the convent of S. Barnabci. The
eighty-four drawings in illustration of the Divina
Commedia^ formerly at Hamilton Palace, and now at
Berlin, were executed by him for Lorenzo di Pier
Francesco de' Medici, who remained in Florence until
his death in 1503. Eight sheets from the same
volume, once the property of Queen Christina of
Sweden, are now in the Vatican. The whole series
is of the deepest interest, especially the illustrations
of the Purgatorio and Paradiso, which reveal the
mystic tendency of Sandro's imagination, while his
love of delicate foliage, of fluttering draperies and
showering roses, appears at every page. In the last
design Beatrice is seen, crowned with flowers, stand-
ing with the poet at her side, in the highest spheres
of Paradise, attended by nine circles of rejoicing
angels, and one little cherub bearing a cartellino with
the artist's name, Sandro di Mariano.

In January, 1504, Botticelli, although infirm and
old, came out of his retreat to meet his old friend
Leonardo and the other chief masters in Florence,
and choose a site for Michelangelo's David. After that
we hear no more until, on the 17th May, 15 10, he was
buried in his father's vault in the church of Ognissanti.

Chief Works —

Florence. — Ognissanti. — Fresco — St. Augustine.

Accademia: 73. Coronationof the Virgin (San Marco),
74. Predella of the Annunciation and

Saints.
80. Spring.

85. Madonna with Saints and Angels
(S. Barnabi).
157-162. Predella of Dead Christ and Saints.
Uffizi: 39. Birth of Venus. ^

1 1 54. Portrait of Giovanni de' Medici. 1/

214 SANDRO BOTTICELLI [1446-1510

Chief Works {continued,) — /

Florence.— Ujffizi: 1156. Judith.*' /
1 158. Holofernesy
1 1 79. St. Augustine.
1 182. Calumny.^
1267. bis. Magnificat. "
1286. Adoration of the Magi.
1289. Madonna of the Pomegranate.
1299. Fortezza. t^

3436. Adoration of Christ as King of Florence.
„ Palazzo Pitti: Pallas subduing a Centaur. -

,, Palazzo Capponi: Communion of St. Jerome.

Bergamo. — Morelli Gallery: Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici.

Story of Virginia.
Milan. — Ambrosiana: 145. Madonna and Child with Angel.

,, Poldi-Pezzoli Museum : 156. Madonna and Child.

Rome. — Sistine Chapel : Frescoes — Moses and the Daughters of
Jethro ; Destruction of Korah ; Purification of a
Leper, with the Temptation of Christ ; Portraits of
Popes.
Berlin. — Gallery: 106. Madonna and Saints.

1 1 28. St. Sebastian.
Dresden. — Gallery: Scenes from Life of St. Zenobius.
London. — National Gallery: 592. Adoration of the Magi.

626. Portrait of Youth.
915. Mars and Venus.

1033. Adoration of the Magi (/tfWflS?).

1034. Nativity.

Mr. Heseltine : Madonna and Child, with St. John.
Mr. Mond: Scenes from Life of St. Zenobius.
St. Petersburg. — Hermitage: 3. Adoration of the Magi.
Boston^ U.S.A. — Mrs. Gardner: Madonna and Child, with

Angel ; Death of Lucretia.
Paris » — Louvre: 1297. Frescoes of Lorenzo and Giovanni
Tornabuoni.

N.B. — A full and critical account of this master's life and works will
be found in Mr. Home's " Sandro Botticelli " (Bell, 1908), while a no
less admirable description of the Dante drawings is given by Mr.
Berenson in his *' Drawings of Florentine Masters " (Murray, 1904).

XVIII
FILIPPINO LIPPI

1457-1504

FiLiPPiNO LiPPi was the son of Fra Filippo and
Lucrezia Buti, the nun of Prato, and adopted this
name to distinguish him from his father. He was
born at Prato, in 1457, and received his first training
from Fra Filippo, after whose death, in 1469, he
returned to Florence with Fra Diamante and was
placed in Sandro Botticelli's workshop. Under the
eye of this master, who, we are told by Vasari, took
the keenest interest in promising students, the boy
made rapid progress, and soon became an independent
master. With none of Sandro's genius, and without
any strong individuality of his own, Filippino was a
clever and accomplished artist, whose pleasant and
gentle nature made him a general favourite. His
early works — a tondo of the Madonna and Child,
with angels offering flowers, in the Corsini Gallery,
an Annunciation at Naples, and a panel of four
Saints in a meadow, at San Michele of Lucca —
show a marked likeness to Fra Filippo*s style,
together with a grace and refinement peculiar to
himself. His own qualities and his father's memory

216

2i6 FILIPPINO LIPPI [I45^

secured him the favour of the Medici and brought
him important commissions. In 1482, when he was
only five-and-twenty, he was engaged to paint a
fresco in a hall of the Palazzo Pubblico, at the
same terms which had been offered to Perugino,
who had gone to Rome without executing the work.
Two years later, he was chosen by the Carmelite
friars to complete the frescoes of the Brancacci
Chapel which Masaccio had left unfinished in 1428.
The Brancacci family was extinct, and now that the
chapel had become the property of the convent, the
friars were anxious to complete the work. The best
fresco-painters — Botticelli, Ghirlandajo and Rosselli —
were absent in Rome, so, by Lorenzo de' Medici's
advice, they entrusted the task to the son of Fra
Filippo, who had himself been a brother of their
order. The result justified the wisdom of their
choice, and the five subjects which the young
master painted in the famous chapel are not un-
worthy of the proud place they occupy. First of
all, Filippino completed Masaccio's unfinished fresco
of the Raising of the King's Son, adding the
kneeling figure of the youth, the group of men
under the wall, on the left, and the row of eight
figures on the right. All of these are said to be
portraits of contemporary personages. The naked
boy is the painter Francesco Granacci, then fourteen
years of age, and among the citizens on the left are
Filippino's patron, Piero della Pugliese, the poet
Pulci, Marco Soderini, and Piero Guicciardini, the
father of the historian. On the opposite wall,
Filippino, following Masaccio's example, combined
two subjects in one large fresco, the Trial of St.

1504] FRESCOES IN THE CARMINE 217

Peter and St. Paul before the tribunal of Nero, and
the Crucifixion of St. Peter. The figure of Nero,
seated on his throne under a green baldacchino and
stretching out his arm towards the prisoners, is full
of dignity, and his head is copied from Roman
medals. As before, the spectators are chiefly por-
traits of well-known Florentines. We recognise
Antonio Pollaiuolo in the tall man with the long
nose and high cap, standing near Caesar, and Filippino
himself in the graceful and picturesque youth in the
right-hand corner, while Sandro Botticelli, clad in a
red mantle and grey cap, is one of the three men
standing immediately in front of the archway which
connects the two subjects, watching the scene of
martyrdom. All the progress which Painting had
made during the last sixty years, the wonderful
advance in realistic portraiture and scientific know-
ledge, the mastery of problems of chiaroscuro and
perspective, which Masaccio had first tried to solve,
and which were now the common property of every
artist's apprentice, are embodied in this fresco. But
although so much fresh ground had been gained,
and although Filippino was undoubtedly one of the
cleverest and most accomplished masters of his age,
his composition fails to reach the power and grandeur
of Masaccio's works. He was more successful in the
two smaller subjects which he painted on the pilasters
below Masaccio's frescoes of Adam and Eve, at the
entrance of the chapel. The figure of St Paul
addressing St. Peter as he prays behind his prison-
bars, is solemn and noble, and the young soldier,
sleeping on his bench outside the prison, while the
angel opens the doors and delivers the captive, has

2l8

FILIPPINO LIPPI

[1457-

the simple charm and grace that are Filippino*s most
attractive qualities.

During the next few years, the young master
painted several of his finest works. In i486, he
finished a large picture of the enthroned Madonna
crowned by angels and attended by the patrons of
Florence, St. Zenobius and the Baptist, St. Bernard
and St. Victor, which is now in the Uffizi. A
companion for this altar-piece, which was destined
for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico,
had been originally given to Leonardo as far back as
1478, but now that he had left Florence the task was
assigned to Filippino. The Florentine arms appear
in the upper part of the picture, which is remarkable
for its clear, luminous colour and for the lovely angel-
faces that Filippino loves to repeat. The same
transparent hues, the same exquisite boy-angels,
appear in the great picture of the Vision of St.
Bernard, which he painted in 1480, for Piero del
Pugliese's chapel in the convent church of Campora,
belonging to the Badia of Florence. During the
siege of the city, in 1529, this altar-piece was
removed for safety to the Badia, where it is still the
ornament of that ancient shrine. Here Filippino has
far excelled his father's version of the same subject,
and never succeeded in rendering so beautiful an ex-
pression as that of St. Bernard as, sitting at his desk,
he gazes in love and yearning at the mild Virgin-face
which has suddenly dawned upon his prayer. To the
same date we may ascribe the Madonna in S. Spirito,
with the fine portraits of the donor, Tanai de' Nerli,
and his wife, who are presented to her by St. Martin
and St. Katherine, and a distant view of the Porta

THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD (BADIA) — FILIPPINO LIPIT.

[ To face page 218

I504J VISIT TO ROME 219

S. Frediano, with Tanai alighting from his horse and
embracing his little girl.

By this time the fame of Filippino had reached
the ears of Matthias Corvinus, the art-loving King
of Hungary, who married Beatrice of Aragon, and
employed Leonardo to paint pictures, and Benedetto
da Majano to make intarsiaSy and the young Floren-
tine artist received an invitation to this monarch's
court. This, however, he declined, but agreed to
paint two altar-pieces, in one of which he introduced
the king's portrait, and which he sent to Hungary
when he left Florence for Rome, in September 1488.
He had been already strongly recommended by
Lorenzo de' Medici to Cardinal Caraffa, who had
sent to Florence for a painter to decorate a chapel
in S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, and who
was so much pleased with Filippino when he saw
him, that he declared he would not change the
artist sent to him by the Magnifico for all the
painters of ancient Greece. Before Filippino set out
on his journey, he made a will leaving two houses
at Prato, which he had inherited from his father,
and the property which he owned in Florence, to his
mother and sister, and bequeathed the remainder
of his estate to the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova,
on the condition that a liberal provision of corn,
wine, oil, salt meat and wood should be given yearly
to his " beloved mother, Lucrezia Buti." On his way
to Rome, the painter visited his father's burial-place
at Spoleto, and, by Lorenzo de' Medici's command,
erected a marble monument to Fra Filippo's memory.

The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas — that
favourite theme of the Dominican Order which

290 FILIPPINO LIPPI [1457

Giottesque masters had represented 140 years before
in the Chapter - house of Santa Maria Novella —
was the subject of the frescoes which Filippino
painted in the great Dominican church in Rome,
for his Neapolitan patron, Cardinal Caraffa. A
portion of the work, in which the victory of the
Theological Virtues was set forth, has been destroyed
by the erection of a monument to Pope Paul IV.,
but a fresco of the Assumption and an Annunciation,
with Cardinal Caraffa kneeling at the feet of the
Angelic Doctor, are painted above the altar. On
the east we have a lunette with Thomas kneeling
before the miraculous Crucifix, bearing the words
" Bene scripsisti de me^ Thomal^ and a large repre-
sentation of the Saint in glory trampling on a
heretic who lies prostrate at his feet. Other false
teachers are seen below with confusion on their
faces and their heretical books lying in a heap on
the ground, while a number of spectators contem-
plate their discomfiture from a balcony behind.
There is considerable skill in the grouping and
composition, and the rich Renaissance architecture
and classical monuments in the background are
cleverly introduced ; but we miss the simple dignity
and repose of the Brancacci frescoes, and the
spontaneous charm of the painter's youthful works.
Like all his contemporaries, Filippino was deeply
impressed by the wonders of ancient Rome, and
filled his sketch-books with drawings of arabesques
and ornamental details from antique remains, which
were carefully preserved by his son, and which
afterwards proved of great service to the sculptor
Benvenuto Cellini.

1504] RETURN TO FLORENCE t2i

As early as April 1487, Filippo Strozzi, the builder
of the famous Strozzi Palace in Florence, had engaged
Filippino to decorate his family chapel in Santa
Maria Novella, and now he vainly urged the absent
master to fulfil his promise. In a letter from Rome,
dated May 2, 1489, the painter expresses his warm
gratitude to Strozzi for kindness far beyond his
deserts, and deeply regrets that he has so far been
unable to comply with his request, since he is detained
in Rome by the Cardinal, who has proved himself the
best of patrons, and for whom he is executing the
frescoes in Santa Maria, of which he proceeds to
give a full description. Since, however, he intends
to be at home again by the feast of San Giovanni,
he will then undertake the work for Filippo Strozzi
and attend to nothing else until it is finished. But it
seems doubtful whether the master returned to
Florence at all that year, and the first record we have
of his presence there is in January 1491, when he was
one of the competitors who supplied designs for the
facade of the Duomo. By this time Filippo Strozzi
was dead, and it was not until 1500 that the heirs
were able to induce Filippino to carry out their father's
wishes. Orders from all sides poured in upon the
popular master, who found it quite impossible to
satisfy all the demands that were made upon him.
A fresco representing a sacrifice, which he began in
a loggia of Lorenzo de' Medici's villa at Poggio a
Caiano, and which is still in existence, was left un-
finished, probably on account of the Magnifico's death,
in 1492. Another commission which he accepted
was an order from the monks of the Certosa of
Pavia, who applied to him on the recommenda-

222 FIUPPINO LIPPI [1457.

tion of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. Some
years earlier, this prince, who already had Leonardo
in his service, asked his envoy in Florence to send
him the names of the best painters to be found in the
city. In reply he received the following note, which
is curious, as showing how accurately the position and
merits of the three chief Florentine masters at the
close of the fifteenth century were judged by their
contemporaries : —

"Sandro de Botticello — a most excellent master, both
in fresco and tempera. His figures have a manly air, and
are admirable in conception and proportion.

Filippino di Frate Filippo — an excellent disciple of the
above-named, and a son of the rarest master of our times.
His heads have a gentler and sweeter air, but in my opinion
less art.

Domenico de Grillandaio — a good master in panels, and
a better one in wall-painting. His figures are good, and he
is an active and industrious master, who accomplishes a
great deal of work."^

The result of this communication was that Lodovico
Moro advised the monks of Pavia to engage Filippino,
who, on 7th March 1495, entered into an agreement
to paint a Pieta for the Certosa. But he never exe-
cuted this commission, and, in 151 1, long after the
painter was dead and the Duke had been carried
into captivity, another Florentine master, Mariotto
Albertinelli, undertook the work which he had left
undone.

Another important work which Filippino never
accomplished was an altar-piece for the Hall of the
Great Council, which he agreed to paint in 1498, but
never began, and which was afterwards assigned to

=tprofessor Miiller Walde, " Jahrbuch der K. P. Kunst," 1897.

IS041 ADORATION OF THE MAGI 223

Fra Bartolommeo. He did, however, succeed in
completing one large altar-piece, the Adoration of the
Magi, for which Leonardo had received a commission
from the monks of S. Donato, in the year 1481, but
which he had never finished. Filippino's picture
contains as many as thirty figures, among whom are
several portraits of the Medici. In the young king,
who is in the act of taking his gift in his hand, while
a page removes his crown, we recognise Giovanni di
Pier Francesco, who became the third husband of
Caterina Sforza, the famous Madonna of Forli, and
was the father of the bold Condottiere, Giovanni
delle Bande Nere. As usual in Filippino's works, the
figures are noble and life-like, but the tendency to
overload them with ornament becomes more apparent,
and there are evident signs of haste in the execution.
On the back of the panel we read the inscription :
" Filippus me pinxit de Lipio Florentinus ad dl 29, di
Marzo, 1496."

The next year, Filippino, who was now forty years
of age, married Maddalena dei Monti, by whom he
left three sons, the eldest of whom, Francesco, became
a goldsmith, and was the gentle youth with whom
Benvenuto Cellini formed so fair a friendship. In the
same year, 1497, the painter was chosen, together
with Cosimo Rosselli, Benozzo Gozzoli and Perugino,
to value Alesso Baldovinetti's frescoes in the Trinity,
and, in 1498, he was among the artists and architects
who met to consult over the restoration of the cupola
of the Duomo, which had been struck by lightning.
That summer he went back to his native city of Prato,
and painted the beautiful fresco which still adorns a
tabernacle in the corner of the market-place, close

224 FILIPPINO LIPPl [I4S7'

to the convent of S. Margherita, where his mother,
Lucrezia, first met the Carmelite friar. This lovely
Madonna with the choir of angel-babies in a golden
sky, has all the delicate charm and purity of Filippino's
early works, and deserves the praise which Vasari be-
stows upon its perfection. His later pictures at
Bologna and Genoa are inferior both in design and
workmanship, and even the fine altar-piece which
he painted for the Rucellai Chapel, in S. Pancrazio,
suffers from the mannerism which mars so much of
his later work, while the colour of the picture has
been ruined by a coat of dark varnish. A far truer
idea of the painter's style is obtained from a frag-
ment of a fresco representing an Angel with clasped
hands, which hangs in the same room of the National
Gallery.

Filippino's last cycle of frescoes were the scenes
from the lives of St. Philip and St. John the
Evangelist, in the Strozzi Chapel of Santa Maria
Novella, which he began early in 1500, and only
finished in 1 502, as we learn from an inscription on
the triumphal arch in the Resurrection of Drusiana.
These paintings were the master's final and most
ambitious effort, to which he brought the knowledge
and experience of years, and in which he put forth all
his powers. They contain, it must be owned, some
very striking scenes. The look of strange surprise
on the face of the dead woman, who comes to life again,
and the mingled horror and amazement of the men
who carry the bier, are finely given. The miracle of
St. Philip exorcising the dragon in the temple of Mars,
while the king's son falls back dying in his servants'
arms, is rendered with dramatic effect. But the ex-

IS04] MADONNA AND ST. ANNE 225

aggerated action of many of the figures, the confusion
of streaming draperies and waving scarves, and the
endless quantity of bas-reliefs, caryatides, and
arabesques with which the walls and pilasters of the
temple are loaded, destroy all sense of beauty and
repose. Yet these frescoes excited the utmost admira-
tion at the time they were painted, and Vasari cannot
contain his delight in the novelty and variety of the
objects introduced — "The temples, armour, helmets,
vases, trophies and other things, all painted in so admir-
able a manner that they deserve the highest praise."

In 1503, Filippino — who had already undertaken
two commissions which Leonardo had failed to
execute — agreed to paint a Deposition for the high
altar of the church of the Annunziata, to supply the
place of the picture which his great contemporary
had begun, but never finished. This altar-piece had
in the first place been assigned to Filippino, but
when Leonardo came back to Florence, in 1500, he
was heard to say, that he would gladly have under-
taken the work himself Upon this, says Vasari,
Filippino " like the amiable man that he was," gave
up his claim at once, and Leonardo produced the
cartoon of the Madonna and St. Anne which excited
so much admiration. Since, however, he made no
further progress with the picture, and had again
left Florence, the friars turned once more to
Filippino, who set about the work at once. But
there was a fate against the completion of the
altar-piece, and only the upper part of Filippino's
picture was completed, when he was seized with
a violent attack of fever, which carried him off in
a few days, Filippino died on the i8th of April,

226 FILIPPINO LIPPI [1457-

1504, and was buried two days later in San Michele
Bisdomini, amidst tokens of universal grief and
respect. " And all the shops in the Via de' Servi
were closed," writes Vasari, "when he was borne
to his burial, as is only done, for the most part, at
the funerals of princes." His unfinished picture
was completed after his death, by the Umbrian
master Perugino, who added the group of the
fainting Virgin and weeping women at the foot
of the Cross.

Filippino's best scholar was Raffaellino del Garbo,
who accompanied him to Rome as his assistant, and
worked both under him and Botticelli. A very
unequal artist, Raffaellino never fulfilled the promise
of his youth, and after Filippino's death adopted
exaggerated gestures and mannerisms which ruined
his art. His best pictures are a charming Madonna
with Angels playing musical instruments in a
flowery meadow, at Berlin, a Resurrection, painted
in oils, and closely resembling Filippino's style,
which originally hung in the Capponi chapel at
Monte Oliveto, and the Pieta, formerly ascribed to
Botticelli, at Munich. This last work is so powerful
and dramatic in character, and so full of intense
feeling, that we can have little doubt the conception
is due to Botticelli, and the picture was painted
from some design of his later years. Raffaellino
died in 1524, at the age of fifty-eight.

Chief Works —
FiLiPPiNO :

Florence. — Accademia: 89. St. Mary of Egjrpt.
93. St. John the Baptist.
98. Deposition.

1504] HIS WORKS 227

Chief Works (continued) —

Florence.— Pitti: 336. Allegory of Youths attacked by
Serpents.
,, Uffizi: 286. Portrait of Painter,

1 167. Old Man.
1257. Adoration of the Magi.
I2i68. Madonna and Child with four
Saints and Angels.
„ Palazzo Cvrsini: 162. Madonna and Child with

Angels.
,j Palazzo Torrigiani: Bust of Youth.
,, Badia : Vision of St. Bernard.
tf Carmine, Brancacci Chapel: Frescoes — Raising
of the King's Son (partly) ; SS. Peter and Paul
before Nero; Crucifixion of St. Peter; St.
Paul visiting St. Peter in Prison; Angels
delivering St. Peter.
99 Santa Maria Novella, Strozzi Chapel: Frescoes
— Lives of St. John the Evangelist, and St.
Philip.
,j S, Spiritc: Madonna and Saints.
»r Poggio a Caiano : Fragment of Fresco— A

Sacrifice.
Bolognu. —S. Domenico : Marriage of St. Katherine.
Genoa. — Palazzo Bianco: Madonna and Child with Saints.
Lucca. — S. Michele: SS. Helena, Sebastian, Jerome and

Roch.
Naples. — Scuola Toscana: Annunciation.
Prato. — Gallery: 16. Madonna and Child with St. John
Baptist and St. Stephen.
„ Canto sul Mercatale, Tabernacle :¥xqsco — Madonna
and Child with Cherubs and SS. Margherita,
Stephen and Anthony.
Rome. — S. Maria sopra Minerva, Caraffa Chapel: Frescoes
— Annunciation, Assumption, Triumph of St.
Thomas Aquinas ; Vision of the Crucifix.
Venice. — Seminario: 15. Christ and the Woman of

Samaria.
17. Noli me Tangere.
Berlin. — Gallery: *j%a. Allegory of Music.
96. Crucifixion.
10 1. Madonna and Child.

228

FILIPPINO LIPPI

[1457-1504

Chief Works {continued) —

London. — National Gallery : 293. Madonna and Child, with
SS. Jerome and Dominic ; 927. Angel.
Mr. Benson : Fietk.
Sir Henry Samuelson : Moses striking the Rock.

The Golden Calf.
Mr. Warren : Holy Family.
Oxford. — Christ Church: Centaur.

Resurrection.

15. Madonna and Child, with

Raffaellino del Garbo :

Florence. — Accademia: 90.
Naples. — Scuola Romana:

St. John.
Parma. — Gallery: 56. Madonna giving the Girdle to St.

Thomas.
Venice. — Lady Layard: Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Berlin. — Gallery: 78 and 81. Portraits.

90. Madonna and Child with two Angels.
London. — Mr. Benson : Madonna and Child with Angels.

Sir Henry Samuelson : Madonna and Saints.
Munich. — Pinacothek : 1009. Piet^.
Dresden, — Gallery: 22. Madonna and Child,

XIX

DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO

1449-1494

The third great master of Lorenzo de' Medici's age,
who shared with Botticelli and Filippino in all the
most important works of the day, and enjoyed the
same high reputation among his fellow-citizens, was
Domenico Ghirlandajo. Born in 1449, he was the
son of a silk merchant named Tommaso Bigordi
and began life in the shop of a goldsmith who had
acquired some reputation as a maker of the gold
and silver garlands commonly worn by Florentine
women. To this circumstance Domenico and his
younger brother David owed the nickname of ^^ del
Ghirlandajo^^ in Tuscan dialect, Grillandajo, by which
they became generally known. Domenico early
practised his hand at portrait -painting by taking
drawings of the men and women whom he saw in
the streets, and he soon left the goldsmith's shop
to study painting under Alesso Baldovinetti. Both
his natural gifts and early training fitted him for the
position which he holds as the chief of the Florentine
realists. Essentially prosaic by nature, and lacking
alike the artistic feeling of Sandro and the grace of

230 DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO [i449-

Filippino, Ghirlandajo was gifted with rare facility of
hand and a keen eye for all the small details of domestic
life, which he reproduces with Dutch-like accuracy
and minuteness. No doubt, like other Tuscan masters,
he was familiar with some of the fine examples of
Flemish art which had found their way to Florence,
and especially with the imposing triptych by Hugo
van der Goes, which Tommaso Portinari had brought
back from Bruges to adorn his family chapel in S.
Maria Nuova. And the natural bent of his mind led
him to tread in the steps of these Northern artists
and paint every vein and wrinkle in the faces of his
personages, and every brooch or jewel in their robes,
with the same minute realism. Ghirlandajo's mar-
vellous industry, as Lodovico Sforza's envoy told his
master, was another striking feature of his character.
His appetite for work was insatiable, and he is said
to have declared that he would like to decorate the
whole circle of the walls of Florence with frescoes.
As it is, the number and variety of paintings which
he executed during his comparatively short life is
amazing.

The earliest work that we have from his hand is
probably the fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia,
which he painted for the Vespucci on the walls of
Ognissanti. After being whitewashed, in 1616, this
long -lost picture was lately brought to light, and
among other family portraits contains one of a youth
who is said to be the famous navigator Amerigo
Vespucci. In 1475, Ghirlandajo paid a visit to Rome,
and we learn from recently discovered documents
that he painted a fresco over the tomb of Francesco
Tornabuoni's wife in S. Maria Minerva, and was also

1494] FRESCOES AT SAN GIMIGNANO 231

employed with his brother David in the Library of
the Vatican. No trace of their work is now in
existence, but Ghirlandajo made good use of his
spare time and took careful drawings of temples,
pyramids, and other classical remains which he after-
wards introduced in his works. In 1476, the brothers
returned to Florence, and painted a Last Supper in a
Vallombrosan monastery at Passignano, the wealthiest
religious house in Tuscany. Here the coarse fare
which the monks supplied their guests excited the
wrath of David to such a pitch that this hot-headed
youth rose from table, flung the soup over the brother
who had prepared the meal, and seizing a big loaf of
bread, struck him so violently, that the poor monk
was carried to his cell more dead than alive. The
abbot, who had gone to bed, was roused from sleep
by the clamour, and hurried to the parlour, thinking
the roof had fallen in, only to be greeted with a
torrent of abuse from David, who told him that his
brother was worth more than all the pigs of abbots
who had ever ruled over the Abbey !

Before this visit to Rome, probably in 1474 or
early in 1475, Ghirlandajo painted one of his most
attractive works, the frescoes of the Chapel of Santa
Fina, in the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano.
The virgin Saint, who suffered all her life from
incurable disease, but brought the people of San
Gimignano untold blessings by her prayers and
sanctity, is represented lying on her death -bed
and consoled by St. Gregory, who appears to her
in a vision. All the details of the humble home
— the kitchen table with its brass plates, glass jugs
and ripe pomegranates, the window looking out

232 DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO [i449-

on the rocks and running stream, and the rose-bushes
in the garden, are lovingly reproduced, and the aged
women who watch by the bedside wear the white caps
and laced bodices of the peasants of the district. In
the other fresco, Santa Fina lies in the last sleep, and
her dead hand is lifted to heal the paralysed arm of
the old nurse kneeling at her side, while a little choir-
boy kisses her feet and an angel tolls the bell. The
scene with all its simple details is full of pathos, and
the grave priest who reads the last prayers, and the
acolytes whose whole thoughts are occupied with the
heavy cross and candles they bear, are closely studied
from life. On this occasion Ghirlandajo was assisted
by Sebastiano Mainardi, a painter of San Gimignano,
who married his sister and executed many of the
works ascribed to his more famous brother-in-law,
both at San Gimignano and in other places.

Soon after his return to Florence Ghirlandajo
married, and is described in an income-tax return
of 1480 as living in his father's house, but being
without a settled home, and having a wife of nineteen,
named Costanza. His next works of importance were
the Cenacolo and St. Jerome, which he painted in the
convent and church of Ognissanti, in 1480. The aged
Saint is represented seated, pen in hand, at his writing-
desk, and the variegated pattern of the table-cloth,
the candle, hour-glass, inkstand and scissors, and the
Cardinal's hat and water-flask on the shelf, are all
exactly reproduced. The Last Supper, which the
painter afterwards repeated with little variation in
the smaller refectory of San Marco, is set in a
Tuscan garden where ilex and laurels, orange and
pomegranate trees grow up the arches of the loggia,

1494] FRESCOES IN FLORENCE 235

and blue-headed peacocks and other bright-winged
birds perch on the marble balustrade. In both the
traditional form of composition is retained, and there
is the same absence of dramatic intention and the
same careful rendering of the dishes and water-bottles,
the cherries and loaves of bread. The painter's interest,
we feel, lies wholly in the external aspect of the scene
before him. He has no care for the deeper meanings
which lie under the surface of life, or the fitful play
of human passions and emotions, but is content to
reproduce what is passing before his eyes as truth-
fully and exactly as possible. Unlike Botticelli and
Leonardo, he has no type or ideal of his own, but his
realism, as Dr. Woltmann has truly said, is kept in
check by a certain dignity of style which lifts his
larger compositions above the common - place, and
gives them an imposing air. With the single ex-
ception of a Vulcan which he painted for Lorenzo
de' Medici's villa at Spedaletto, Ghirlandajo was
entirely engaged upon sacred subjects, which in his
hands became a frame for the portraits of the chief
Florentine men and women of the day. His frescoes
thus acquire the value of historic documents, and give
us a sober and dignified, if somewhat prosaic, record
of the Medicean age. In 148 1, he received a com-
mission to paint a fresco in the same hall of the
Palazzo Pubblico which Botticelli, Perugino, and
Filippino had been engaged to decorate. None of
these masters seem to have executed the work
assigned to them, and the only fresco of the series
in existence is Ghirlandajo's Triumph of St Zenobius,
with a group of Roman warriors above and a view of
the Duomo and Baptistery in the background. The

234 DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO [i449-

progress of the work, however, was interrupted by the
painter's second visit to Rome, and the fresco remained
unfinished until 1485, for in October, 148 1, Ghirlan-
dajo was summoned with Botticelli and his comrades
to take part in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel.
During the following year he painted a Resurrection
over the doorway, which has been destroyed, and the
well-known fresco of the Calling of St. Peter and St.
Andrew. The influence of Masaccio is apparent in
this carefully-arranged and well-balanced composition ;
the colour is clear and harmonious, and the landscape,
with the wooded shores and lake of Gennesareth in
the background, lends real beauty to the picture. As
usual, a number of contemporary personages who take
no part in the scene are introduced among the
spectators on either side.

The greater part of the three years after the painter's
return to Florence was devoted to the frescoes of the
history of St. Francis with which he decorated the
Chapel of the Sassetti in the Trinitk. These six large
compositions are Ghirlandajo's finest and most success-
ful works. They display his consummate knowledge
and mastery of the technical side of art, and show
some attempt at dramatic action and expression. The
artist had evidently studied Giotto's frescoes in Santa
Croce with close attention and followed the same
lines, especially in the Death of St. Francis. This
last subject is rendered with a realism which excited
Vasari's warmest admiration. " The careless indiffer-
ence of the choristers forms a striking contrast to the
grief of the weeping friars, and the mitred bishop,
chanting the prayers for the dead, with spectacles on
his nose, is so life-like that, but for the fact that we

1494] FRESCOES OF THE TRINITA 235

do not hear his voice, no one would believe him to be
painted." But in spite of the painter's cleverness,
in spite of the marked advance in every branch of
art which had been made in the last century, and the
rich costumes and splendid architecture with which
Ghirlandajo adorns the subject, his picture lacks the
supreme qualities of Giotto's work, and we feel how
far short he falls of his great forerunner.

The portraits of many of the artist's most illustrious
contemporaries are introduced in this series. Lorenzo
de' Medici, wearing a red mantle, stands on the left of
Pope Honorius, in the second fresco, while Maso degli
Albizzi, Palla Strozzi, Angelo Acciaiuoli, and Ghir-
landajo himself, in a red cap, with his hand on his
hip, all figure in the fifth subject, where St. Francis
raises a dead child to life, and the bridge of the
Trinita and Palazzo Spini are seen in the back-
ground. Many fair maidens and handsome youths
of the Sassetti family appear in this picture, and
Francesco Sassetti himself, the wealthy banker
who, as Lorenzo's agent at Lyons, played a
leading part in politics, is represented, together
with Madonna Nera, his wife, kneeling on either
side of the altar. The altar-piece of the Nativity, a
tempera painting, containing an admirable portrait
of the artist, who kneels by the shepherds at the
manger of Bethlehem, is now in the Accademia, and
bears the date of 1485. This is one of Ghirlandajo's
best works, and is full of reminiscences of his visit
to Rome. Corinthian columns support the pent-
house roof, a procession of the Magi passes under a
triumphal arch, and a Roman sarcophagus with a
Latin inscription takes the place of the manger.

2s6 DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO [i449-

Hardly had the master completed his frescoes of
St. Francis, in the Trinita, than he set to work on
another great series — the Lives of the Baptist and
of the Virgin, in the choir of Santa Maria Novella.
The commission to paint the walls originally adorned
by Orcagna's ruined frescoes, was given to Ghirlandajo
by Giovanni Tornabuoni — the uncle of Lorenzo de'
Medici — who agreed to pay the artist the sum of
2,200 gold florins, and to add another 200, if he
were satisfied with the result. When, however, at
the end of four years the great series was completed,
Tornabuoni expressed the utmost admiration for the
work, but asked the painter to be content with the
sum originally proposed. Ghirlandajo, who seems
to have been singularly indifferent to gain, made
no objection, but afterwards his patron's conscience
reproached him for his want of liberality, and when
the painter was ill at Pisa, in 1492, he sent him a
gift of 100 florins. These twenty-one subjects
have been much injured by damp, and restoration
and the hand of inferior assistants is plainly seen
in many of the best preserved portions. But as a
splendid illustration of Florentine life, the whole
series is of rare interest. On the one hand we have
the public and official life of the Tornabuoni, their
stately banquets and processions; on the other, we
catch a glimpse of their private and domestic history.
In the guests seated at Herod's feast, in the crowds
who throng the temple court, we recognise the
Tornabuoni and their kinsmen, the partners of the
Medici bank, Gianfrancesco Ridolfi, Roderigo Sassetti
and Andrea de' Medici. On one side we have a
group of famous humanists — Angelo Poliziano,Marsilio

FLORENTINE LADY.
(S. MARIA novella) — DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO.

[To /ace page 236

1494] FRESCOES IN S. MARIA NOVELLA 237

Ficino, Cristoforo Landino and Lorenzo's tutor, Gentile
de' Becchi ; on the other, we see the painter, with his
aged father, and his brother David, and brother-in-law
Sebastiano Mainardi, the assistants who helped in
the decoration of the choir. Giovanna degli Albizzi,
the fair maiden who, on the i6th of June, i486,
became the bride of Lorenzo Tornabuoni, is here
in her stiff brocades and rich jewels, with her young
sister-in-law Lodovica and many noble dames, on
their way to visit the mother and new-born babe.
With her we enter the chamber where the mother
lies on her couch, and friends are wishing her joy,
while the nurse rocks the baby, and the maids
prepare its bath. We see the frieze of singing and
dancing children on the wall, the elegant Renaissance
columns of the loggia, and we note how, in his anxiety
to display his knowledge of perspective and anatomy,
the painter has introduced a naked beggar sitting on
the floor, and a peasant-woman poising a basket of
fruit on her head, while a perfect gale of wind blows
out the skirts of the maid who pours out the water
for the child's bath.

These frescoes, which were finally completed in
1490, filled the Tornabuoni with delight and wonder,
and Ghirlandajo was next employed to paint the
chapel of their villa near Fiesole, which was unfor-
tunately destroyed by floods in the next century.
Many of the master's finest tempera pictures were
painted during the four years when he was at
work in Santa Maria Novella. The large Corona-
tion, at Narni, was finished in i486, and the round
Adoration, in the Uffizi, bears the date of 1487.
This subject was repeated in the altar-piece of the

238 DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO [i449-

Hospital of the Innocents, on a larger scale. Here
the Coliseum and pyramid of Cestius are seen in
the distance, rising amidst the domes and spires of
a populous city, on the banks of a broad river,
crowded with ships and barges, and Ghirlandajo's
head appears to the left of the graceful Renaissance
pilaster, which supports the temple. Four angels,
throned on the clouds, sing the Gloria from an open
scroll, and two little white-robed Innocents, with
sword-cuts in their heads, and glories round their
brows, are presented to the Virgin by the Baptist
and Evangelist. The Visitation, in the Louvre, was
ordered by Lorenzo Tornabuoni for his chapel in
the church of Cestello, and begun by the master
in 1 49 1, but evidently finished by his assistants.
In the same year Ghirlandajo was chosen, together
with Botticelli, to design mosaics for the Chapel of
St. Zenobius in the Duomo, but the work was never
executed, owing to the death of Lorenzo de' Medici
a few months afterwards. Two years before, our
master had designed the mosaic of the Annunciation
over one of the Cathedral doors, and took great
pleasure in the work, saying that mosaic was
painting for eternity. The same indefatigable
energy prompted him to undertake tasks of the
most varied description. Even the candelabra of
the Duomo were sent to his shop to be gilded
and decorated, and he told his assistants jestingly
that they must never refuse an order, were it only
one for the hoops of a peasant-girl's basket.

As might be expected, Ghirlandajo painted many
admirable panel-portraits, several of which are still
in existence. Among the finest are those of his

1494] PORTRAITS 239

patron, the banker, Francesco Sassetti, with his
bright-eyed boy at his side, in Mr. Benson's
collection, and the beautiful profile of Giovanna
Tornabuoni, with the fair hair and red coral beads,
which he painted in 1488. This bust, one of the
finest Italian portraits in existence, was formerly
the property of Mr. Henry Willett, who lent it to
the National Gallery, but has lately passed into the
collection of Mr. Pierpont Morgan. During the last
year of his life, Ghirlandajo painted many altar-
pieces for churches at Lucca and Pisa, and for the
Camaldolese abbey of S. Giusto, which had been
granted to Lorenzo de' Medici's son, the young
Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Pope Leo X. In 1492,
he began a large picture of Christ in Glory, for a
convent at Volterra, but never lived to finish it ;
for in the prime of life, and in the full tide of
his renown, he was suddenly struck down by mortal
disease, and died of the plague in January 1494.
The sad event is recorded in the following entry,
which may be found in the archives of the Confra-
ternity of St. Paul : —

"Domenico de Churrado Bighordi, painter, called del
Grillandaio, died on Saturday morning, on the nth day of
January, 1493 (o.s.), of a pestilential fever, and the overseers
allowed no one to see the dead man, and would not have
him buried by day. So he was buried — in Santa Maria
Novella — on Saturday night after sunset, and may God
forgive him ! This was a very great loss, for he was
highly esteemed for his many qualities, and is universally
lamented."

Ghirlandajo was not yet forty-five at the time of
his death, and had been twice married. His first wife,

240

DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO

[1449-

Costanza, died in 1485, and in the following year he
married a widow of San Gimignano, Antonia di Ser
Paolo. He left a family of nine children, the eldest
of whom, Ridolfo, born in 1483, became a painter of
some repute, and was the intimate friend of Raphael.
Several of Domenico's scholars, especially his brother-
in-law Mainardi, and Francesco Granacci, were excel-
lent artists who did good work in Florence and the
neighbourhood, but they were all surpassed by an-
other student who received his early training in this
busy workshop, and it is the glory of Ghirlandajo to
have been the first to recognise the genius of the
youthful Michelangelo.

Chief Works : —

Florence. — Accademia: 66. Madonna and Child with Saints.
195. Adoration of the Shepherds.
Ufflzi: 1295. Adoration of the Magi {tondo).

1297. Madonna and Gfcild with Saints
and Angels.
Palazzo Vecchio : Frescoes — Triumph of St,

Zenobius, Roman Warriors.
San Marco y Small Refectory : Fresco — Last

Supper.
Spedale degli Innocenti : Adoration of the Magi.
.S*. Maria Novella : Choir : Frescoes — Lives of
the Virgin and of the Baptist.
„ Ognissanti : Frescoes — S. Augustine, Madonna

della Misericordia. Piet^.
„ Refectory : Last Supper.

„ S. Trinita: Frescoes — Life of St. Francis,

Sibyl.
San Gimignano. — Collegiata. — Chapel of S. Fina: Frescoes

— Death and Funeral of the Saint.
Lucca. — Duomo : Sacristy : Madonna and Child with Saints.
Narni. — Municipio : Coronation of the Virgin.
Pzsa, — Gallery: Sala VI. : 2.1. SS. Sebastian and Roch.

,, St, Anna: Madonna and Child with Saints.
Rimini. — Gallery: Three Saints and God the Father.

•f

ft

II

1494] CHIEF WORKS 241

Chief Works {continued) —

Rome. — Vatican: Sistine Chapel: Fresco — The Calling of St.

Peter and St. Andrew. Portraits of Popes.
London. — National Gallery : 1299. Portrait of Youth.

„ Mr. Robert Benson : Francesco Sassetti and his Son.

,, Mr. Mond: Madonna and Child.

„ Mr. Salting: Madonna and Child with St. John.

Portrait of Costanza de' Medici.
Paris. — Louvre: 1321. Visitation (partly).

1322. Portraits of Old Man and Boy.
New York. — Mr. Pierpont Morgan: 1488. Portrait of
Giovanna Tornabuoni.

N.B. — The triptych by Plugo van der Goes, and the other pictures
in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, have been lately removed to the
Uffizi Gallery.

XX

LEONARDO DA VINCI

1452-1519

" The richest gifts of heaven are sometimes showered
upon the same person, and beauty, grace and genius
are combined in so rare a manner in one man, that
to whatever he may apply himself, his every action
is so divine, that all others are left behind him."
With these words Vasari begins his life of Leonardo
da Vinci, one of the most gifted mortals whom the
world has ever seen. The personal beauty arid heroic
strength, the brilliant conversation and fascinating
presence that charmed all hearts, were only the
outward signs of a marvellously subtle and refined
intellect, and of a mental energy that has been
seldom equalled. Never before or since, in the
annals of the human race, has the same passionate
desire for knowledge been united with the same
ardent love of beauty, never have artistic and
scientific powers been combined in the same degree
as in this wonderful man. There was hardly a
branch of human learning which he did not seek
to explore. Architecture, sculpture, mathematics)
geology, hydraulics and physiology, all in turn

242

1452-1519I HIS GENIUS 243

absorbed his attention. He filled volumes of
manuscript with his observations on artistic and
scientific subjects, modelled statues and designed
buildings, planned canals, and discovered the use
of steam as a motive force. Humboldt pronounced
him to be the greatest physicist of his age, and
scholars of our own day have recognised in him
a man who was not only an excellent artist and
a veritable Archimedes, but a great philosopher — a
" thinker who anticipated the discoveries of modern
science, and a master of literary style who knew
how to express lofty thoughts in noble and eloquent
language."

Painting, as we know, was only one of the varied
forms in which his activity was displayed, and
occupied a comparatively small part of his time
and thoughts. But he exerted the most extra-
ordinary influence upon contemporary artists, and
was the true founder of the Italian school of oil-
painting. And profoundly interested as he was
in other studies, he always considered painting to
be the work of his life, and wrote his celebrated
Treatise with the express object of maintaining the
supremacy of Painting over all other arts. Unfor-
tunately, little of his art is left us. All contemporary
writers agree in saying how few pictures he ever
completed. Not only was he distracted by a
multitude of other occupations, but he was never
satisfied with his efforts, and spent infinite time
and pains in trying to realise his idea. "When he
sat down to paint," writes Lomazzo, " he seemed
overcome with fear. And he could finish nothing
that he began, because his soul was so filled with

244 LEONARDO DA VINCI [1452-

the sublime greatness of art, that he only saw faults
in works which others hailed as marvellous creations."
As he says himself in a celebrated passage of his
" Treatise on Painting " :

"When a work satisfies a man's judgment, it is a bad
sign, and when a work surpasses his expectation, and he
wonders that he has achieved so much, it is worse. But
when an artist's aim goes beyond his work, that is a good
sign, and if the man is young, he will no doubt become a
great artist. He will compose but few works, but they will
be such that men will gaze in wonder at their perfection."

We may regret that Leonardo painted so few
pictures, and we may deplore still more the singular
fatality which has destroyed his greatest creations,
the ruin which overtook the Sforza monument and
the misfortunes which have left the Last Supper
a mere wreck. But we must remember, on the
other hand, the perfection of the works of art
which he has left behind him, and which, few as
they are in number, have for ever raised the
standard of human attainment.

Leonardo the Florentine, as he commonly called
himself, was born in 1452, at Vinci, a fortified
horgo on the western slopes of Monte Albano, half-
way between Pisa and Florence. He was the
natural son of Ser Piero, a young notary of the
place, and of a girl of good family named Caterina,
who, after giving birth to this son, married a peasant
of Vinci. Piero also married in the same year, and
had four wives and a family of twelve children. He
was a man of remarkable vigour and energy, who
held important ofEces in Florence, and had a house

ISI9] EARLY WORKS 245

on the Piazza San Firenze. Here Leonardo lived
until he was twenty-four years of age, and had served
his apprenticeship in Andrea Verrocchio's workshop.
There he grew up in close companionship with
Perugino as Giovanni Santi sang in his poem —
^^ Due giovin par d'Hate e par (Vamore^^ and made
himself beloved by all. " The radiance of his
countenance," says Vasari, " rejoiced the saddest
heart. Even dumb animals felt the fascination of
the man. He could tame the most fiery horses,
and would never allow any living creature to be
ill-treated. Often, we are told, he bought the
singing-birds that were sold in the streets, in
order that he might open the doors of their cages
and set them free with his own hands. Music and
mathematics divided his time with painting and
sculpture. He modelled terra-cotta heads of smil-
ing women, and, in his eager search after beauty,
followed the lovely faces he saw up and down the
streets of Florence. Even at this early age, Vasari
tells us, he began many works and then abandoned
them. The earliest drawings we have from his
hand are a mountainous landscape in the Apennines,
bearing the date of 1473, and a lovely sketch of a
youthful Virgin, which may be one of the Madonnas
to which Leonardo alludes in a note of October
1478 : " I began two Virgin Maries." This last
was evidently a study for the charming little
Annunciation, in the Louvre, with the terraced
garden and cypresses, that recall Verrocchio's ren-
dering of the same subject in the Uffizi.

In 1472, Leonardo's name was inscribed on the roll
of the Painters' Guild, and soon afterwards he was

246

LEONARDO DA VINCI

[1452-

given a pension by Lorenzo de' Medici and invited to
study the Magnifico's collection of antiques in the
garden of San Marco. Through the same influential
patron he obtained a commission, in 1478, to paint an
altar-piece for a chapel in the Palazzo Pubblico, and,
in 1 48 1, signed a contract by which he promised to
complete another, for the monks of San Donato, in
the space of two and a half years. Neither of these
works were ever completed, but the cartoon of the
Adoration of the Magi, in the Uffizi, was probably
a design for one of the two. This sketch is painted
in bistre, or brown monochrome, and a number of
preparatory studies, in the Uffizi and other collections,
show the infinite amount of time and thought which
the artist bestowed upon the subject. The conception
is strikingly original. The Virgin is seated in the
open air, with tall trees and a spreading palm behind
her, and a ruined colonnade and broad flight of stairs
rising in front of a rocky landscape. The kings, no
longer clad in contemporary costume, but wearing
flowing togas, press forward with eager devotion on
their faces, and Mary presents her Child to them
with a smile of deep inward bliss on her gentle face.
The love of horses, which distinguished Leonardo, and
which afterwards led him to write a whole treatise on
the structure and anatomy of the horse, is already
apparent. A number of these animals, in every variety
of attitude, standing, lying down, rearing and gallpp-
ing, are introduced, and a skirmish of cavalry is
seen in the background. The whole scene is full
of life and animation, and the character and variety
of the heads bear witness to the aim " of express-
ing the movements of the soul through the gestures

ISI9] DEPARTURE FROM FLORENCE 247

of the body," which from the first he set before
him.

An unfinished study of a penitent St. Jerome,
kneeling in prayer before the crucifix, with his lion at
his side, and the view of Santa Maria Novella in
the background, now in the Vatican, is the only
other work of Leonardo's Florentine period that is
left us. The early works which Vasari describes,
the Rotella and Medusa, in which he indulged his
taste for fantastic horrors, and the Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden, with each flower and leaf
carefully studied, have all vanished.

In July, 148 1, Leonardo was living in his own
house in Florence and received certain sums of
money in advance from the monks of San Donato,
as well as a load of wood and one lira six soldi
for painting their clock. After that his name dis*
appears from contemporary records until 1487, when
we find him living at the court of Milan, in the
service of Lodovico Sforza, Regent, and afterwards
Duke, of Milan. The silence of documents has
given rise to all manner of strange theories regard-
ing Leonardo's career of six years, and Dr. Richter
ventured on the bold conjecture that during these
five or six years the painter travelled in Syria,
became engineer to the Sultan of Cairo, and even
embraced the Mahometan religion. The chief
argument in support of this theory is a letter
that may be found among Leonardo's MSS., in
which the writer describes an earthquake which
took place at Aleppo in 1483, and illustrates his
account with maps of Armenia. But these notes,
it is plain, are borrowed from the record of some

248 LEONARDO DA VINCI [1452-

contemporary traveller, which Leonardo, who was
fond of collecting topographical facts upon all
parts of the world, in this as in many other cases,
has copied for his own amusement. The absence
of drawings of Oriental scenes in the artist's note-
books, and of any allusion to these travels in the
writings of his contemporaries, may be taken as
still more destructive of this theory.

The Anonimo who wrote Leonardo's life early in
the sixteenth century tells us, that when the painter
was thirty years old, he was sent by Lorenzo de'
Medici, with the musician Atalante Migliorotti, to
bear a silver lute to Lodovico Sforza at Milan.
This would fix the date of Leonardo's arrival in
1482, or early in 1483, and agrees with the state-
ment of a contemporary, Sabba da Castiglione, who
says that Leonardo spent sixteen years of his life in
modelling the great equestrian statue of Francesco
Sforza, which was destroyed after he left Milan in
1499. This equestrian statue was, in all probability,
the cause of his journey to Milan. From the moment
of his accession to power, in 1480, Lodovico Sforza
had determined to raise a colossal statue in honour
of his father, the great condottiere who became Duke
of Milan, and, as was his habit, asked his friend
Lorenzo de' Medici for a sculptor who could execute
the work. It was then, doubtless, that Leonardo
wrote the famous letter offering Lodovico Sforza his
services. After dwelling at length on his capacities
as military engineer, and his ability to construct
cannons and scaling-ladders, mortars and engines
of useful and beautiful shape, he concludes with the
following proud words : —

I5I9] AT THE COURT OF MILAN 249

" In time of peace, I believe I can equal any one in
architecture, in constructing public and private buildings,
and in conducting water from one place to another. I can
execute sculpture, whether in marble, bronze, or terra-cotta,
and in painting I can do as much as any other man, be he
who he may. Further, I could engage to execute the bronze
horse in eternal memory of your father and the illustrious
house of Sforza. And if any of the above-mentioned things
should appear to you impossible or impracticable, I am
ready to make trial of them in your park, or in any other
place that may please your Excellency, to whom I commend
myself in profound humility."

According to Vasari, it was Leonardo's brilliant
conversation and skill in playing the lute v^rhich first
captivated Lodovico Sforza, but whether there be
any truth in the statement or not, it is certain that
the Moro quickly recognised the Florentine master's
genius, and determined to keep him in his service.
From him Leonardo received a salary of 2000 ducats
(;f400o), besides frequent gifts and rewards, and during
the sixteen years that he spent at the Court of Milan,
he found in Lodovico a genial patron and a generous
and kindly friend. Many and varied were the de-
mands on Leonardo's skill and invention during this
period. Whether in the capacity of architect or
engineer, sculptor or painter, his services were in con-
stant request. There was, first of all, the equestrian
statue, for which he made at least two models and an
endless number of different designs. Unfortunately
he could not satisfy himself, and at last even Lodovico
began to lose patience and to wonder if the work
would ever be completed. On the 23 rd of April 1490,
Leonardo made the following entry in his note-book :

250 LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-

" To-day I began this new book and a new model of
the horse." Three years and a half later, this model
was sufficiently advanced to be placed under a
triumphal arch on the Piazza in front of the Castello
of Milan, on the occasion of Bianca Sforza's wedding
to the Emperor Maximilian. Poets and chroniclers
hailed the monument as one of the wonders of
the age, and compared Leonardo to Phidias and
Pericles. But the wars in which the Duke of Milan
became engaged, and his financial difficulties, put an
end to his most cherished schemes, and the statue was
never cast in bronze.

In 1487, Leonardo made a model for the cupola of
the Duomo of Milan, and three years later received
payment for another which he never finished. In
1490, he went to Pavia, to give his opinion on the new
Cathedral of that city, but was hastily recalled to
superintend the decorations of the Castello of Milan,
in honour of Lodovico's marriage. During many
years he was employed in painting the camerini of
this palace, which, under the Moro's rule, became one
of the finest in Italy, and plans for pavilions in the
ducal gardens and ingenious contrivances for heating
the Duchess's baths are preserved among his manu-
scripts. His help, again, was often required in the
masquerades and Carnival festivities that were held
on so vast a scale at the Court of Milan. On one
occasion he constructed the mechanism of an operetta
called "II Paradiso/' in which the planets and stars sang
the praise of the newly- wedded Duchess ; on another
he designed the costumes for a grand Tournament in
which the Duke's son-in-law appeared at the head of
a horde of Scythians. On one page of his note-

ISI9] VIERGE AUX ROCHERS 251

book we find the sketch of a flying bird to be intro-
duced in some comedy ; on another we read a sugges-
tion for bringing snow from the mountains in summer,
and scattering it on the Piazza at festivals. In later
years he was appointed ducal engineer, and careful
notes on the canals of Lombardy and fortifications of
the Castello are to be found among his works. Certain
mysterious circular engravings, designed by his hand
and bearing the inscription, Accademia Leonardi Vinciy
have been taken as evidence that the great master
founded an Academy of Arts and Sciences at Milan ;
but the term was probably applied to those informal
gatherings of scholars and artists which were held in
the Castello, in the Duke's presence, and which
Leonardo's friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli,
describes as " laudable and scientific duels." The
great lasting influence which he exerted on the school
of Milan is well-known, and it was at Lodovico Sforza's
especial request that the artist wrote his famous
Treatise on Painting.

These varied occupations left Leonardo little time
for painting. Yet, during these busy years at the
most brilliant court of Italy, he executed some of
his most important works. The pictures which he
painted for the Emperor Maximilian and the King of
Hungary, and the portraits of the Moro's mistresses,
Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli, have perished,
but one great altar-piece of this period is still in
existence. This is the " Vierge aux Rochers," which
the master painted about 1490, for the Church of
S. Francesco of Milan, but which he asked the Duke's
leave to keep, since the friars refused to pay him
more than twenty-five florins, while another patron

252 LEONARDO DA VINCi [1452-

had offered him a hundred for his work. Accordingly,
the picture became the property of some private
owner, from whose hands it passed into the collection
of Francis I. at Fontainebleau, and is now among
the greatest treasures of the Louvre. In spite of its
blackened colour and repainted condition, the"Vierge
aux Rochers " is a masterpiece of profound originality
and infinite charm. The old trammels of tradition
have been cast away, and the Virgin appears no
longer crowned and throned, attended by saints or
kneeling in adoration before her Son, but simply as
a human mother, watching her child with all a
mother's tender delight. The Child, sitting on the
grass, blesses the little St. John, whom the Virgin
caresses with her hand; a red -robed angel, with
uplifted finger, kneeling at his side, completes the
lovely group. In the oval types and rippling hair
of both the Virgin and angel, the innocent grace 01
the curly-headed children and the soft blue of Mary's
mantle, we see the exquisite refinement of Leonardo's
fancy. Still more remarkable is the execution of
the picture. The ease and freedom with which the
figures are modelled, the subtle harmonies of line
and delicately-blended tints, the wonderful play of
light and shade in the deep hollows and splintered
shafts of the rocky background, all reveal the presence
of a new power in art.

The replica of this famous picture in the National
Gallery is probably the work of the Milanese artist
Ambrogio de Predis, who had already painted the
angels on the wings of the altar-piece, and remained
in the Franciscan church until 1796, when Gavin
Hamilton bought it for thirty ducats. The small-

ISI9-] CARTOON OF VIRGIN AND ST. ANNE 253

ness of the sum is the best proof that the picture
was not held to be a genuine Leonardo, since the
great master's works were held in the highest estima-
tion at Milan, and Charles I. had vainly offered 300
ducats for any one of his manuscripts in that city.
A series of original studies for the children-heads and
the angel with the outstretched finger, are still to be
seen at Windsor and Paris, and bear witness to the
genuineness of the Louvre painting, while the slight
improvements in the composition of the National
Gallery picture seem to indicate that it was a later
work, probably executed under Leonardo's own eye.

But if England cannot claim to possess an oil-
painting by the hand of this rare master, we have
a priceless treasure in the cartoon of the Virgin
and St. Anne, which is the property of the Royal
Academy. In this drawing, which Leonardo pro-
bably designed towards the close of his Milanese
period, we have the first idea of the picture which
he afterwards painted for Francis I. It is drawn
in black chalk on white paper, and both the hands
and feet of St. Anne and the stones in the foreground
are quite unfinished, but the modelling of the forms
and the expression of the heads display the full
perfection of the master's art The Child in his
Mother's arms springs joyously forward to reach
St John, and St. Anne, on whose lap the Virgin
rests, turns to her daughter with a glad smile and
points upwards, as if to show that she is aware of
her son's divine birth. But the charm of the
picture lies in the face of Mary, with the strange,
wonderful smile that tells of a joy beyond mortal
dream. Nowhere else has Leonardo succeeded in

254 LEONARDO DA VINCI [1452

drawing a face so absolutely free from all suspicion
of earthly guile, so pure and tender in its perfect
loveliness. For once even the master himself must
have been satisfied.

The history of this famous cartoon still remains
doubtful. But we know that it was reproduced by
Luini in an oil-painting, now in the Ambrosiana,
and that, in 1585, it was still the property of his
son Aurelio. In 1720, it was sold by the Arconati
family and removed to Venice, where it was bought
by the English Consul, John Udny, and taken to
England about 1760. On the 22nd March, 1791, the
following minute appears on the roll of the Council
of the Royal Academy signed by the President, Sir
Joshua Reynolds : —

"The cartoon, by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Royal
Academy, being in a perishable state, having been neglected
many years : Resolved — That it have all the possible repairs
and be secured in a frame and glasses, which the Secretary
is requested to take charge of."

The head of the Virgin from this cartoon which now
hangs in the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House
forms our frontispiece, and is here reproduced by the
special permission of the President and Council of the
Royal Academy.

But the most famous work which Leonardo executed
for Lodovico Sforza was the Last Supper, in the re-
fectory of the Dominican friars of S. Maria delle Grazia
a convent which the Duke had taken under his especial
protection. When the painter received the order, he
felt that the opportunity of his life had come, and
threw himself with passionate ardour into this work

rsi9] THE LAST SUPPER 255

in which all the resources of his art and all the experi-
ence of ripened years are gathered up. Very few of
his preliminary studies, however, remain. The red
chalk drawing in the Accademia at Venice, with the
names of the different apostles, is one of the earliest,
and some single heads in the library at Windsor are
of great beauty, while some curious descriptive notes
indicating the attitude of each apostle, in Leonardo's
own handwriting, are preserved at South Kensington
Museum.

" One, in the act of drinking, puts down his glass and
turns his head to the speaker. Another, twisting his fingers
together, turns to his companion, knitting his eyebrows.
Another, opening his hands and turning the palm towards
the spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth expressing the
liveliest surprise. Another whispers in the ear of a companion,
who turns to listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in the
other a loaf, which he has cut in two. Another, turning
round with a knife in his hand, upsets a glass upon the
table and looks ; another gasps in amazement ; another leans
forward to look at the speaker, shading his eyes with his
hand; another, drawing back behind the one who leans
forward, looks into the space between the wall and the
stooping disciple."

This first realistic conception, which curiously
recalls Andrea del Castagno's fresco in Sant'
Apollonia of Florence, was gradually transformed
by the fine action of Leonardo's imagination into
the noble and harmonious scene that is familiar to
us all. There is consummate art in the grouping
and gestures of the figures, in the simple tunics
and mantles of the apostles, and the plain fittings
of the upper chamber, with its timbered roof and

«56 LEONARDO DA VINCI [i4Sa-

three windows, looking out on the distant hills.
Leonardo began the work early in 1495, but, after
his wont, lingered over it till both the Prior and
the Duke's patience were well - nigh exhausted.
Matteo Bandello, the novelist, who was a novice
in the convent at the time, has described how he
often saw the master mount the scaffolding and
remain there, brush in hand, from sunrise to sunset,
forgetting to eat and drink. Sometimes he would
stand before the fresco for an hour or two, lost in
contemplation, and would not take up his brush
for three or four days. At other times he would
leave the Castello, where he was modelling his
equestrian statue, and hurry through the streets, in
the blazing noontide sun, to the convent outside the
city gates, add a touch or two to the fresco, and then
return as quickly as he came. But he was always
courteous to visitors, and liked to hear them express
their opinions freely on his work. When Cardinal
de Gurck paid a visit to Milan, early in 1497, and
was lodged in the convent, he came to see the painter,
and praised his fresco highly ; but six months later it
was still unfinished, and Lodovico sent the Marchesino
Stanga to urge him to complete the work without
delay.

The Prior, Vasari tells us, could not understand
why the painter should stand before his picture for
half the day without making any visible progress,
and appealed to the Duke, who sent for Leonardo
and discussed the subject with him. The master
explained that he was really producing most when
he seemed to be idle, and added that he had still
two heads to paint, that of Christ, which he could

I5I9] THE LAST SUPPER 257

hardly hope to realise on earth, and that of Judas,
for which he was still seeking a model, but would,
if it pleased the Duke, make use of the Prior's
own head, a joke over which both prince and
painter laughed heartily. By the end of the
year, however, the work was finished, and Luca
Pacioli, in dedicating his book to the Duke,
alludes to his friend Leonardo as the "sculptor
of the admirable and stupendous equestrian statue,
and the painter of the noble and beautiful
symbol of the ardent Desire of our Salvation in
the temple of le Gratie." Unfortunately, instead of
working in fresco — a process which did not admit
of the continual retouchings prompted by his
fastidious taste — Leonardo painted in oils on a dry
stucco ground, which soon crumbled away, and in
Vasari's time the great picture was already a wreck.
We need not dwell on the melancholy tale of subse-
quent mutilations and restorations which it has
undergone. Enough that Leonardo's soul still
dwells in this ruined masterpiece, and that even
now it has a power and a charm which no copies
can ever give. There is a vigour and sincerity in
the heads, a sense of common action and thrill of
sympathy running through the group, above all, a
depth of tenderness and intensity of feeling in the
expression of the faces, which no reproductions give,
and which belong to the original alone.

After finishing the Last Supper, Leonardo painted
Lodovico's own portrait and that of his young wife,
the lamented Duchess Beatrice — who had died early
in the year, and was buried in the church close by —
kneeling with their little sons at the foot of the

R

asS LEONARDO DA VINCI [1452-

MUanese artist Mortorfano's fresco of the Crucifixion,
on the opposite wall. Since, however, he insisted on
painting them in oils, these noble figures — which
contemporaries describe as living images of both
Duke and Duchess — have almost disappeared. But
already Lodovico's enemies were closing about him,
and he found himself in sore need of men and money.
In April, 1499, Leonardo, who up till this time
had found him so generous a patron, wrote to remind
him that his salary was two years in arrear, and in
reply received a grant of a vineyard outside the
Porta Vercellina, with a letter acknowledging his
services in the warmest terms, and calling him th^
most famous of living painters. When, a few months
later, the French entered Milan, and Lodovico fled to
Innsbruck, Leonardo sent 600 florins which he had
saved to the bank of S. Maria Nuova in Florence,
and went to Venice. On his journey he stopped
at Mantua, and paid a visit to the accomplished
Marchesa Isabella, sister to Duchess Beatrice, whom
he had often met at the court of Milan, and whose
portrait he drew in charcoal. By the end of March
he was back in Florence. There he heard the news
of Lodovico's final defeat and betrayal to the French,
and of the terrible ruin which had overwhelmed his
State and friends. The fair palace which he had
helped to decorate was pillaged by French soldiery,
and the model of his equestrian statue became a
target for Gascon archers. A few broken sentences
in one of Leonardo's note-books record the grief
which he felt that day. Bramante's buildings were
left unfinished, the architect Jacopo da Ferrara, a
friend dear to him as a brother, had been hung by

ISI9] THE VIRGIN AND ST. ANNE 159

the French as a traitor, all his old companions were
in prison or exile, and his noble patron Lodovico
was a captive in a foreign land. "The Duke," he
wrote, " has lost his realm, his fortune and his
liberty. Not one of his great undertakings has
been completed."

The next sixteen years of Leonardo's life were
spent in constant journeyings up and down Italy.
During fifteen months he remained in Florence,
first in the house of his friend, the sculptor Rustici,
and afterwards with the Servi brothers, who com-
missioned him to paint an altar-piece for their
church. After rpany delays, he at length produced
a cartoon of the Madonna and St. Anne, which
not only filled all artists with admiration, but
brought crowds of men and women, old and
young, to the hall in the convent where it was
exhibited during two days. "The whole city was
stirred," writes Vasari, " and you might have thought
it was a procession on some solemn feast day."
The Carmelite preacher, Fra Pietro da Nuvolaria,
writing to Isabella d'Este, in April, 1501, describes
this cartoon, which made all Florence wonder, in
the following words : —

" The composition is an Infant Christ, hardly a year old,
escaping from his Mother's arms to catch hold of a lamb
and embrace it. The Virgin, rising almost out of the lap
of St. Anne, tries to part the babe from the lamb, and St.
Anne seems about to make some movement to hold her
back. The figures are life-size, and yet the composition is
a small one, because all of them are either seated or bending
down."

This sketch, in which we recognise the design for

26o LEONARDO DA VINCI iHS^-

the oil-painting afterwards executed for Francis I.,
was the only cartoon which Leonardo had drawn
since he had been in Florence.

" The fact is," adds the Carmelite, " he has grown tired of
painting, and spends all his time on geometry. Two of his
pupils are painting portraits, which he touches up from time
to time. But he seems to be living without thought of the
morrow."

In vain the Marchesa reminded Leonardo that he
had promised to paint her portrait in oils, and begged
for some little sacred subject for her studio. "You
might at least," she wrote to Fra Pietro, "persuade
him to paint us a little Madonna, as sweet and holy
as his nature would lead him to conceive." But her
entreaties met with no response. The friars waited
in vain for their altar-piece, and Isabella's Madonna
was never painted.

In the summer of 1502, Leonardo entered the
service of Caesar Borgia as military engineer, and
travelled through Romagna — "the realm of all
stupidity," as he called this province — visiting
Urbino, Rimini, Cesena, and Forli, inspecting
fortresses, drawing plans, and noting down any
curiosities which he saw on his journey. Early
in the following year he returned to Florence, and
became once more absorbed in the study of mathe-
niatics. In July, he paid a visit to the camp
before Pisa, and prepared elaborate plans for the
construction of a canal between that city and
Florence, And in January, 1504, he was present
at the meeting of the artists who chose a site
for Michelangelo's David. In the April following,

ISI9] LIFE IN FLORENCE 361

both he and Michelangelo received a commission
to prepare plans for the decoration of the Council
Hall in the Palazzo Pubblico. The subject assigned
to Leonardo was the battle between the Florentines
and Milanese at Anghiari, in 1440, and the Signory
agreed to pay him fifteen florins a month, on con-
dition that his cartoon was finished by the following
February. During the next ten months Leonardo
worked with unceasing ardour at his new task. The
subject appealed to him in an especial manner, and
the sense of rivalry with the young and famous artist
Michelangelo impelled him to put forth all his powers.
His account-books at this time bear witness to the
simplicity of his habits and frugality of his daily life
After the splendour and luxury of the Milanese court,
we find him living in rooms near the Pope's hall at
Santa Maria Novella, doing his own housekeeping,
and sending out his favourite pupil Salai with a florin
to buy provisions for the day. After paying the
shoemaker and barber, and laying in a store of bread
wine, grapes, and mushrooms, Salai brought back three
soldi. This was on a Friday ; on other days the
bill of fare included meat, ^%'gs>, salad, butter and
melons. The hire of horses and purchase of cooking
utensils and dishes are included in these modest ex-
penses, which only amount to a few florins a week.
But with his usual generosity we find Leonardo
giving Sala'f three florins for a pair of rose-coloured
stockings, and green velvet and silver cloth to make
a new mantle, and advancing a considerable sum
for his sister's dowry. Of wealth and pleasure, of
honours and rewards, the master was singularly
independent. *' O poverty of man ! " he exclaims in

262 LEONARDO DA VINCI [MS*-

one passage, "of how many things do you become
the slave for the sake of money ! " All he asked
was freedom from care, and a quiet home in which
he could work and study at leisure. " I am never
weary when I am useful," is one of his favourite
mottoes. "In serving others I cannot do enough/'

By February, 1505, Leonardo's cartoon was com-
pleted, and he began to paint the central group of
horsemen fighting round the standard on the wall
of the Council Hall. Unfortunately, he determined
to try a stucco ground, such as Pliny describes to
have been employed by Roman artists, and, after
wasting endless time and labour on the experiment,
found that the substance was too soft and would
not hold the colour. This disastrous result filled
him with vexation, and before long he abandoned
the work in despair. His failure was the more
lamentable because of the unanimous testimony
which contemporaries bear to the heroic beauty of
the warriors and horses in the unfinished painting,
which for some years adorned the Council Hall.
Leonardo's cartoon remained in the Pope's hall,
while that of Michelangelo was hung in the Medici
Palace, where Benvenuto Cellini saw them, in 1559,
and describes them as the school of the whole
world. But these vanished in the course of the
next century, and to-day nothing remains to us of
Leonardo's masterpiece excepting a few scattered
studies and Raphael's copy of the central group,
in the University Galleries at Oxford. It is only
when we turn to the painter's vivid and dramatic
picture of a battle, in the "Trattato," and read the
eloquent words in which he paints the confused

I5I9] MONA LISA 263

melie of dead and dying, of stamping and rearing
horses, and the different expressions on the faces
of victors and vanquished, that we realise all that
we have lost in Leonardo's Battle of the Standard.

A better fate has attended the portrait of Mona
Lisa, the fair Neapolitan wife of the Florentine
Prior, Francesco del Giocondo, which he painted
about this time. After working at the picture for
more than four years, Leonardo took it with him
to France, where it was bought by Francis L for
4000 gold crowns. A document of the last century,
which M. Durand Grdville has lately brought to
light, confirms the truth of Vasari's well - known
description, and proves that before varnish and re-
painting destroyed the surface of the picture, the
sky was of a delicate blue, the lady's complexion
of dazzling fairness, and her eyes of liquid and
brilliant lustre.

" The smallest details are rendered with exceeding care,
the eyes have all the liquid sparkle of nature, the lashes
fringing the lids are painted with rare delicacy, the curve of
the eyebrows, the vermilion of the lips, are all exactly re-
produced. This is not painting, it is real flesh. You can
see the pulse beating in the throat, the enchanting smile is
more divine than life itself."

The crimson of the lips has faded and the lustre of
the eyes is dim, but that wonderful face with the
haunting smile, and the everlasting rocks behind, has
not yet lost its charm. For us, in her mystic beauty,
Mona Lisa remains the symbol of the divine Idea
which Leonardo was ever seeking, the secret which
lies hidden at the heart of Nature.

a64 LEONARDO DA VINCI [1452-

Early in 1506, the painter went to Milan, at the
invitation of the French king, Louis XII., who had
frequently tried to secure his services, and was once
more employed on engineering works in Lombardy.
The disgust which he felt at the failure of his last
great enterprise was increased by a vexatious law-
suit with his half-brothers, over his late father's
inheritance, and he was glad to escape from these
cares and anxieties and find a new sphere of action.
But the Gonfaloniere of Florence, Piero Soderini,
refused to prolong his leave of absence, and com-
plained that Leonardo had not treated the Republic
well, and had never finished the work committed
to him. " He has, in fact, acted like a traitor." The
painter, to do him justice, offered to return the
money which had been paid him for his cartoon
in the Palazzo Pubblico, but Soderini refused his
offer, and eventually granted the French king's
earnest entreaty and allowed Leonardo to remain
at Milan. Before long, a fresh revolution in that
city sent him back to Florence, and, in 15 13, he
accompanied Giuliano de' Medici to Rome, to attend
the coronation of his brother. Pope Leo X. The
new pontiff welcomed Leonardo warmly, and gave
him rooms in the Vatican, where Michelangelo and
Raphael were both employed, and where his old
friend Bramante was architect of the new basilica
of St. Peter. But instead of painting pictures for
the Pope, the wayward master spent his time in
vain attempts to realise his old dream of a flying
machine, and in composing a dissertation on the
papal coinage. " Alas ! " exclaimed Pope Leo, when
he found Leonardo distilling herbs to make a new

ISI9] WORKS IN FRANCE 265

varnish, "this man will effect nothing, for he thinks
about finishing his picture before he begins it"
One small Madonna with a Child of enchanting
grace, Vasari tells us, which he painted for the
papal official Baldassarre Turini, has disappeared,
while the fresco in the church S. Onofrio, formerly
ascribed to him, is now recognised to be the work of
his pupil Beltraffio. The departure of Giuliano de'
Medici decided him to leave Rome, and when, in
the summer of 1515, Francis I. entered Italy,
Leonardo hastened to meet him at Pavia. The
new king received him with the greatest honour,
and gave him a pensi'on of 700 crowns. " King
Francis," writes Cellini, " was passionately enamoured
of the great master's talents, and told me himself
that there had never been any man who knew as
much as Leonardo." The painter not only accom-
panied his royal patron to Milan, but followed him
to France, and settled in the Hotel de Cloux, a manor-
house near the king's favourite chateau of Amboise.
Salai" refused to leave Milan, but another of his
favourite pupils, Francesco Melzi, accompanied
Leonardo to France, and watched tenderly over
his declining years. His health was beginning to
fail, but his brain was as active as ever. He pre-
pared plans for a new palace at Amboise, and for
a canal which should connect Touraine with the
Lyonnais. A painting of Leda, which was long
preserved at Fontainebleau, and another of Pomona,
which was also finished in France, have both perished ;
but one picture of this period remains, the blue-robed
Madonna and Child in the lap of St. Anne, with the
lamb, now in the Louvre. This charming group,

266 LEONARDO DA VINCI Cusa-

which owes its existence to Leonardo's invention,
and is at least partly executed by his hand, is
mentioned by Antonio de Beatis, secretary to the
Cardinal of Aragon, in the following account of a
visit to Cloux : —

"On the loth of October, 15 16, we went from Tours to
Amboise. In one town we accompanied the Cardinal
on a visit to Messer Leonardo Vinci, the Florentine, an
old man over seventy years of age, and the most excellent
painter of our age. He shewed His Excellency three
pictures; one was a portrait of a Florentine lady, taken
from life at the request of the late Magnifico Giuliano de'
Medici; the other was a young St. John the Baptist, and
the third a Madonna and Child sitting in the lap of St.
Anne, all most perfectly painted, although no more good
work can be expected from him now, as his right hand is
paralysed. But he has a Milanese pupil who works very
well, and although the said Messer Leonardo can no
longer paint with his old suavity and charm, he can still
make drawings and teach others. This gentleman has
written a treatise on anatomy, with especial regard to
painting, and has described the limbs, muscles, nerves,
veins, and all that belongs to the bodies of men and
women, better than any one else before him has done.
We have seen the work with our own eyes, and he told
us that he had dissected more than thirty bodies of men
and women of all ages. He has also written on the nature
of water, and has filled an infinite number of volumes with
treatises on machines and other subjects, all written in the
vulgar tongue, which, when published, will be of the greatest
profit and delight."

This is our last glimpse of the great master. He
could no longer paint, and soon gave up writing.

I5I91 LAST DAYS 167

On the 24th of June, 15 18, he began to write in his
note-book, but got no further than the date — " // dl
di San Giovanni^ Amboise^ nel palazzo di Clour It
was the Feast of St. John, a day dear to every citizen
of Florence. He lingered through the next winter
until, on Easter Eve, April 23, feeling his end near,
he sent for a notary and dictated his last will. He
left his books and drawings to Francesco Melzi, and
divided his vineyard in Milan between his old pupil
Salai and his faithful servant Battista. His French
maid-servant, Mathurine, was to be given a gown
and mantle of good black cloth, trimmed with fur,
and two ducats, in gratitude for her services. Even
his quarrelsome brothers were remembered, and the
sum of 400 crowns, which he had left in the bank at
S. Maria Nuova, was to be divided between them.
Ten days afterwards, on the 2nd of May, 15 19,
Leonardo passed away, and the peace of his last
moments recalls his own words: "As a well-spent
day gives joy in sleep, so a well-spent life brings joy
in dying" {d^ lieto morire). Melzi announced his
beloved master's death to his brothers in Florence
in these touching words : —

" I think you have already been informed of the death of
Maestro Leonardo, your brother, and to me the best of
fathers. I can never tell you how much sorrow this has
caused me. It is a loss that, as long as I live, I can never
cease to feel ; and this is only natural, for he daily showed me
the warmest and most devoted affection. All men must
lament the death of such a man. May God Almighty give
him eternal peace ! He left this life on the 2nd of May,
well prepared with all the Sacraments of our holy Mother
the Church."

268 LEONARDO DA VINCI [i4S«

Leonardo's remains were buried in the royal chapel
of St. Florentin, at Amboise, and, in obedience to his
last wishes, thirty masses were said for the repose
of his soul, and sixty poor persons followed him
to the grave with lighted candles. The date of
his final burial is recorded in the following
document, discovered by M. Hardouin in 1863 in
the registers of St. Florentin of Amboise, and pub-
lished by M. Muntz.*

"FAt inhume dans le cloistre de cette eglise, Messire
Leonardi de Vincy, nosble millanais, premier peinctre at
ingenieur et architecte du Roy ; mechasnischien d'estat, et
anchien directeur de peincture du Due de Millan. Ce fut
faict le douze jour d'aoust, 15 19."

Leonardo's writings give us the best insight into
his mind, and explain many problems that meet us in
his works. From these scattered sayings, written
down at odd moments, on loose sheets and scraps of
paper, on the backs of drawings and in the corners
of plans, we can reconstruct a whole philosophy of
life. We see him as he was, with his clear and noble
intellect, singularly free from the prejudices and
superstitions of his age, ever seeking after more light
and wider knowledge, but not without a deep rever-
ence for the great First Cause whose nature lies beyond
the range of human thought. And if together with
his written words we study the magnificent collections
of his drawings in the Uffizi, the Louvre, and the
royal Library at Windsor, we shall begin to under-
stand the marvellous genius of the man. Every-
where we see the same passionate longing to penetrate

• Leonardo da Vinci. Vol. II. p. 223.

ISI9J HIS DRAWINGS 269

the mysteries and learn the secrets of Nature. All
forms of life attracted him. Nothing was too small
or insignificant to escape his attention. Studies of
plants and brambles, of flowers and roots of trees, are
mingled with designs of monuments and hydraulic
machines, with anatomical sketches of veins and
muscles, drawings of rocks and waves, or grotesques
and caricatures. And in the midst of this varied and
amazing display of mental activity we find lovely
women-faces with Mona Lisa's smile, or fair boys
with curled and waving hair, in which the artist has
tried to seize and hold fast the fleeting beauty of
which he wrote : Cosa bella mortal passa^ e non (Tarte —
" Mortal beauty passes away, but not art." As we turn
over these wonderful pages, we begin to realise all the
greatness of the gifts with which he was endowed,
the rare creative faculty and exquisite refinement of
feeling which have made Leonardo unique among the
Italian painters of the Renaissance, and foremost
among the supreme masters of the world.

Chief Works —

Florence.— Uffizi : 1252. Adoration of the Magi (sketch).
Milan. — S. Maria delle Graziey Refectory : Last Supper;
Portraits of Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice
d'Este.
Rome. — Vatican: St. Jerome (sketch).
London. — Burlington House, Diploma Gallery: The
Madonna and Child, St. John the Baptist and
St. Anne (cartoon.)
Paris, — Louvre: 1265. Annunciation.

„ 1598. Madonna and Child with St.

Anne.
»> 1599- " La Vierge aux Rochers."

tv 1601. Portrait of Mona Lisa — la

Gioconda.

XXI
LORENZO DI CREDI

1459-1537

Leonardo founded no school in Florence and had
no Florentine pupils, but his influence made itself felt
in the work of almost every artist of his age. This
was above all the case with the masters of the rising
generation. Andrea del Sarto, Fra Bartolommeo,
Piero di Cosimo, Raphael himself, studied his works
closely and learnt much from his example. They
adopted his method of handling colours, and tried to
imitate his delicately blended tints and chiaroscuro
effects. A new and more intimate note became
evident in the character and expression of individual
heads, together with a grace and suavity which had
never been known before.

One of the second-rate masters who strove dili-
gently to form themselves on Leonardo's pattern, and
succeeded in catching something of his charm, was
Lorenzo di Credi, his fellow-student in Verrocchio's
workshop. Born in 1459, and belonging to a family
of goldsmiths, Lorenzo began life in his father's shop^
and after his death entered that of Andrea Verrocchio.
Here the lad grew up with Leonardo and Perugino as
270

I4S9-IS37] WORKS WITH VERROCCHIO «7i

his comrades in that famous bottega where so much
of the finest art of the Renaissance had its birth.
His gentle and affectionate nature endeared him to
all his brother-artists, and made him an especial
favourite with his master. In his widowed mother's
income-tax return for the year 1480, Lorenzo, who
was by this time twenty-one, is described as a painter
working under Messer Andrea Verrocchio for a yearly
salary of twelve florins — about twenty-four pounds.
He must also have assisted his master in his sculptural
works, for when Verrocchio died at Venice, in 1488, he
recommended his pupil Lorenzo di Credi to the Doge
and Signory as the artist best fitted to complete his
unfinished statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni. Lorenzo,
who had remained at Florence in charge of Andrea's
shop, hastened to Venice on hearing of his master's
death, and brought back Andrea's body to be buried
in Florence. But the casting of the great equestrian
statue in bronze was a task beyond his powers, and
the work was ultimately entrusted to the Venetian
Leopardo. Andrea had further shown his confidence
in his favourite scholar by appointing him executor
of his will and leaving him the stock of metal and
other contents of his shop as well as his household
goods, both in Florence and Venice. After his return
home, Lorenzo never left Florence, where he became
Verrocchio's recognised successor, and was held in
high esteem by his fellow-citizens.

The range of his art was almost exclusively limited to
panels of sacred subjects, chiefly Madonnas and Saints,
Nativities or Annunciations. According to Vasari, he
began by copying Madonnas of Verrocchio and Leon^
ardo for the King of Spain, and did his work so well

»yfl LORENZO DI CREDI [1459.

that it was almost impossible to distinguish the copies
from the originals. The Madonna, in the Borghese,
with the Child in her arms, leaning forward to bless
the young St. John, and the wonderfully-painted
glass of flowers on the parapet deceived Vasari even,
who describes it as the work of Leonardo. This
little picture, which once belonged to Pope Clement
VIL, unlike most of Lorenzo's works, is painted in
tempera, and is marked by that conscientious work-
manship and miniature-like finish which made Vasari
declare that such excessive care was as blameworthy
as extreme negligence. This laborious and minute
attention to detail, however, was characteristic of the
artist, who ground his colours and distilled the oil
with his own hands, and was so careful to keep his
tints clear and distinct that he often had as many as
thirty different shades of colour on his palette at the
same time, and always used a different brush for each.
His servant was forbidden to sweep out his studio,
lest a single speck of dust should injure the trans-
parency of his colours or spoil the polished surface
of his pictures.

Lorenzo's style was mainly derived from that of
Verrocchio, whose sharply-defined outlines he pre-
serves, and whose fat babies with awkward limbs and
turned-up toes he imitates, while his smiling Virgins
and curly-headed angels often recall Leonardo's types.
Although he never attained either the grace of
Leonardo's forms or the ardent devotion of Perugino's
heads, the deep sincerity and earnestness of the man's
nature breathes in every picture which he painted.
Among his early works are the altar-piece of the
Madonna and Saints, in the Duomo of Pistoia, which

ANNUNCIATION (UFFIZl) — LORENZO DI CREDI.

\_To face page 272

i'?37J A FOLLOWER OF SAVONAROLA 273

was probably executed in Verrocchio's life-time ; a
tempera-painting of an angel bringing the Sacrament
to the penitent St. Mary of Egypt, formerly in the
Convent of Santa Chiara and now at Berlin, and the
graceful little Annunciation, in the Uffizi. Here the
youthful Virgin turns round with uplifted hand and
an expression of surprise on her face at the Angel
just alighted on the floor, and through the round arches
and elegant pilasters of the open loggia, we look out
on a lovely stretch of green lawn and woodland shades.
These park-like landscapes, watered with running
streams and planted with long avenues of trees, whose
spreading branches throw deep shadows on the grass,
recur continually in the pictures of Lorenzo, and
form charming settings for his favourite themes of
the Annunciation or Noli me Tangere.

A nude Venus which has lately been discovered in
the magazines of the Uffizi, and which originally
adorned the Medici villa at Cafaggiuolo, reminds us
that this gentle painter of sacred stories was among
the artists who studied antiques in the Medici
gardens with Leonardo and Michelangelo. But
the fiery eloquence of Savonarola sank deep into
Lorenzo's gentle nature and influenced the whole
course of his life and art. He became an ardent
piagnonCy and burnt his studies of nude and pagan
subjects on the Bonfire of Vanities, during the
Carnival of 1497. In later years he remained
closely associated with the artists who had been
known as the most devoted followers of Fra Giro-
lamo. He painted the portrait of Benivieni, the
poet who gave up writing carnival songs and
licentious ballads to compose Lauds and hymns

s

274 LORENZO DI CREDI [i459-

for the children of San Marco, and together with
Giovanni della Corniole, the engraver of the famous
gem bearing the head of Savonarola, he witnessed
the will of the zealous piagnone architect, Cronaca.
Again, in 1505, he was chosen, together with Perugino
and Corniole, to value the mosaics executed in the
Duomo by Monte da Giovanni, a miniature painter who
illuminated choir-books for San Marco, and frequently
introduced Savonarola's portrait in his designs.

Lorenzo's popularity among his brother - artists,
and the confidence which they reposed in his
honesty and judgment, is proved by the frequent
instances in which he was asked to settle disputes
and decide the value of works of art. On one
occasion he was called in to settle a quarrel between
the Prior of San Marco and a patron who had
ordered a picture from Fra Bartolommeo ; on another
he was chosen to value the paintings of Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo in the Palazzo Pubblico and a statue
executed by Baccio Bandinelli for the Duomo. He
was also among the artists summoned to consult over
the facade of the Duomo and the repair of the
cupola, and to give their advice regarding the site
of Michelangelo's David.

Among the most important works of Lorenzo di
Credi's mature period are the Adoration of the
Shepherds, with the graceful boy carrying a lamb
in his arms, which he painted for the nuns of Santa
Chiara, and is now in the Academy, and the Madonna
and Saints in the Louvre. This fine work which
Vasari calls Lorenzo's masterpiece, originally hung
in the church of Cestello, afterwards S. Maria Mad-
dalena dei Pazzi, and was carried off to Paris by

1537] RETIRES TO S. MARIA NUOVA 275

Napoleon. It is chiefly remarkable for the beauty
and dignity of the saints who stand on either
side of the Virgin's throne — the venerable bishop
Nicholas and the chivalrous youth Giuliano with
the Leonardesque face and flowing locks, clasping
his hands and lifting his eyes to heaven. Both of
these pictures were painted before 1508, and are
mentioned by Albertini in his "Memorials."

In his latter years Lorenzo spent his time chiefly
in repeating old subjects and executing small
Madonnas for private chapels and oratories that
were in great demand. In 1 5 10, he painted the
sadly-damaged altar-piece, now in the Church of
S. Maria delle Grazie, for the hospital of the
Ceppo at Pistoia, by order of the Master of the
Florentine hospital, S. Maria Nuova. In 1523, h(?
finished the figure of the Archangel Michael, in
the Sacristy of the Duomo, and a year later was
employed to restore certain tombs and monuments
in the same church. Finally, in 1531, being seventy-
two years old, and caring more for a quiet life than
for riches or honours, the aged master retired to end
his days in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova, a founda-
tion closely associated with the convent of San Marco
and the Piagnone artists, where Fra Bartolommeo
painted his Last Judgment, and the miniaturist,
Monte da Giovanni's brother, was organist. At the
same time, Lorenzo made a will leaving certain sums
to Andrea Verrocchio's niece Ginevra and a few
other friends, and bequeathing the rest of his fortune
to the hospital, on condition that he should receive
a yearly allowance of 36 florins, which was to be
continued after his death to his old servant Mona

276 LORENZO DI CREDI [U59

Caterina. He expressly desires that his funeral
should be as simple as possible, and that his money
may be devoted to the sick and needy. Six years
later, on the 12th of January, 1537, this excellent artist
and faithful follower of Savonarola breathed his last,
and was buried in the church of S. Pietro Maggiore.

Like his master, Lorenzo was an admirable
portrait- painter, and several good specimens of his
skill in this branch of art are still in existence.
The Berlin Gallery contains an interesting profile
of a young girl in a white, square-cut bodice, with
pale red sleeves and a coral necklace, which goes
by the name of Verrocchio, but is really an early
work by Lorenzo di Credi. The words " Noli me
Tangere," are written below, and at the back of the
panel, on a shield wreathed in laurel, we read the
following lines from the sonnet long ascribed to
Leonardo, and evidently a favourite in his circle,
but which we now know to have been composed
by the poet Matteo di Meglio: —

** Fu che Iddio voile, sark che Iddio vorrk,
Timore d'infamia, e solo disio d'onore.
Piansi gik quello ch'io volli, poi ch'io I'ebbi.'* *

The portrait of a painter, which is described in
the Uffizi catalogue as that of Verrocchio, is more
probably that of Perugino, his comrade in that
master's workshop, while in a fine drawing of an
old man, at Chatsworth, Morelli recognised the
likeness of the sculptor Mino da Fiesole. Three
or four striking heads in red chalk, by Lorenzo's

* "What God willed, has been, what He wills must be ;
Let us fear infamy and only desire honour.
I wept over what I had once desired when it became mine."

1537] CHIEF WORKS 277

hand, are also preserved in the Reiset Collection, in
the Salle des Dessins at the Louvre.

Chief Works —

Florence. — Accademia: 92. Adoration of the Shepherds,
94. Nativity.
•» Ujffizi : 24. Madonna and Child.

34. Portrait of Youth.
1 1 60, 1 3 14. Annunciation.

1 163. Portrait of Per ugino.
1311, 1313. Noli me Tangere.
3452. Venus.
,, DuotnOy Sacristy: St. Michael.
,, S. Domenico dt Fiesole : BsLpdsm.

Bergamo. — Morelli Collection: 49. Madonna and Child.
Naples. — Museum^ Sala Toscana: 27. Nativity.
Pistoia. — Duomo: Madonna and Child with Saints.

„ Madonna del Letto: Madonna and Child with

Saints.
Rome. — Borghese Villa: 433. Madonna and Child with St,
John.
,, Capitol Museum: 70. Madonna and Child with
Angels.
Turin. — Museum: 115, 118. Madonna and Child.
Venice. — Palazzo Querini-Stampalia^ Sala III. : 4. Madonna

and Child with St. John.
Berlin. — Gallery: 80. Portrait of Girl.

100. Madonna and Child.
103. St. Mary of Egypt and Angel.
Carlsruhe. — Gallery: 409. Madonna and Child with St.

John.
Dresden. — Gallery: 15. Madonna and Child with Saints.
London. — National Gallery : 593. Madonna and Child.

648. Madonna adoring Child.
,, Mr. Butler: Madonna and Child.

„ Earl of Rosebery : St. George.

Longleat. — Marquis of Bath: Madonna and Child.
Oxford. — University Galleries: 26. Madonna.
Mayence. — Gallery: 105. Madonna and Child.
Paris. — Louvre: 1263. Madonna and Child with Saints.

1264. Noli me Tangere.
Strasburg. — Museum: 215. Madonna and Child.

XXII
PIERO DI COSIMO

1462-1521

PlERO DI COSIMO is one of those artists who suffered
from temporary neglect and whose rare merits have
only been lately recognised. Many of his works
formerly passed under the names of other masters, but
have recently been restored to him, and now we are
once more able to form a clear idea of his style. The
first notice we have of this gifted but eccentric artist is
in 1480, when his father, Lorenzo Chimenti, himself a
goldsmith-painter, describes his son as a painter earn-
ing no salary, and working in Cosimo Rosselli's shop.
It was from Cosimo that Piero, who was then eighteen,
derived his name. Rosselli loved him as his own son,
and had good reason, Vasari remarks, to treat him
well, since Piero, being a far better artist than his
master, became indispensable to him, and was em-
ployed on all his important works. Two years after
this, Piero accompanied Cosimo to Rome, and not
only painted the landscapes and many of the portraits
in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, but himself exe-
cuted the Destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea,
which was supposed to be Rosselli's work. As

S78

I462-IS2I] FRESCO IN THE SISTINA 279

Botticelli had glorified the pious and merciful acts of
Pope Sixtus in his fresco of the Purification of the
Leper, so Piero was desired to celebrate his warlike
deeds, and especially the victory which the papal
general, Roberto di Sanseverino, had obtained at
Campomorto in August, 1482, over Alfonso^ Duke of
Calabria, whose armies had invaded the papal
dominions and threatened Rome itself. Moses, the
leader of the chosen people, is represented standing
on the shore, watching the Egyptian hosts and the
chariots of Pharaoh in the act of being swallowed up
by the raging seas, while Miriam, attended by the
Hebrew women, chaunts her song of triumph at his
side. The groups of warriors and horses struggling
in the waves, the angry skies and the fury of the
elements, are rendered with great truth and force, and
the whole fresco is distinctly superior to the earlier
works executed by Cosimo Rosselli, who probably
found this subject beyond his powers.

After his return to Florence, Piero began to work
as an independent master, and received many im-
portant commissions towards the close of the century,
when Ghirlandajo was dead and Leonardo absent in
Milan. Filippino's influence appears in several round
Madonnas and Holy Families of his earlier period, as
well as in the large altar-piece of the Conception,
which he painted for the Tedaldi Chapel in the
Annunziata, and which is now in the Uffizi. Here the
Virgin is represented standing on a pedestal, adorned
with a bas-relief of the Annunciation, and looking up
with rapt expression at the Holy Dove which hovers
in a sea of golden light above. Six saints, among
whom are Filippo Benizzi, the founder of the Servite

i8o PIERO DI COSIMO [146a-

order, and Archbishop Antonino, kneel at her feet,
and a fantastic landscape of steep rocks, crowned with
palms and buildings, fills up the background. The
other altar-piece which he painted about this time,
after many delays and prevarications, for his friend the
Spedalingo of the Innocent!, is still preserved in that
hospital. Here the Virgin is enthroned and the Child
bends down to place the ring on St. Katherine's finger,
while S. Rosa offers him flowers, and two aged saints
and six boy-angels, wreathed with roses and holding
lighted tapers, make up the group. Both the reading
Magdalen, in a red robe, with pearls in her brown
hair, which was until lately the property of the Monte
di Pietk in Rome, and the Holy Family, which long
bore Signorelli's name, at Dresden, strongly resemble
Filippino's works.

But a new and more individual phase of Piero
di Cosimo's art is seen in the tempera pictures
which he painted for the decoration of the houses
and furniture of the cultured Florentines of Lorenzo
de' Medici's circle. The romantic bent of his
genius throws a faery glamour over the Greek myths
which he renders in so quaint a fashion, whether
he paints the nymphs hastening with flowers and
fruits, and their little white dog in their arms, to
bring back the fair boy Hylas to life, or the faithful
hound Lelaps watching over the dead body of
Procris on the flowery shore. In taking the loves of
Venus and Mars for his subject, and representing the
goddess with Cupid and a pet rabbit in her arms,
reclining in the myrtle bowers where the god of war
slumbers, Piero was bold enough to enter into com-
petition with Botticelli ; but if his drawing falls short

I52I] INFLUENCED BY LEONARDO 281

of Sandro^s vigorous line, his landscape, with the rose-
bushes and blue lake sleeping in the clear sunshine,
is far more lovely. Like several of his contemporaries,
it is plain, he had studied the minute rendering of
objects in Hugo van der Goes' triptych and other
Flemish landscapes, and had learnt from their ex-
ample to reproduce every detail with what Vasari
calls "almost incredible patience."

The panels of the story of Perseus and Andromeda,
in the Uffizi, were ordered by Filippo Strozzi, and are
executed in oils, a medium in which Piero loved to
make experiments, and in which he strove to emulate
Leonardo's sfumato tints and effects of chiaroscuro.
The influence of this great master is strongly marked
in his later works, such as the Borghese Madonna,
the Judgment of Solomon in the same collection, and
the larger Uffizi panel, in which he repeats the subject
of Andromeda's deliverance, and introduces a group
of musicians celebrating the triumph of Perseus. An
old inventory, of 1589, states that the figures in this
beautiful painting were drawn by Leonardo, probably
when he was in Florence in the first years of the
sixteenth century, although the colourmg and land-
scape are plainly Piero's work. And it is worthy
of note that Piero di Cosimo is one of the few
Florentine masters whose name appears in Leo-
nardo's note-books.

The "horrid sea-monster" which this master
painted for Leonardo's patron, Giuliano de' Medici,
and the satyrs, fauns, and bacchantes with which
he decorated panels in the Vespucci Palace, have
been lost, but one work which he executed for the
same noble family is fortunately still in existence.

282 PIERO DI COSIMO [U62-

This is the portrait of "la bella Simonetta," which
hung in the Palazzo Vespucci in Florence until it
was bought by M. Reiset, from whose collection it
passed into that of the Due d'Aumale at Chantilly.
The fair Genoese maiden who wedded Giuliano
Vespucci when she was sixteen, and was so sweet
and charming that all men praised her and no women
envied her, died of lingering consumption in April
1476, little more than a year after Giuliano de' Medici
had chosen her to be the Queen of his Tournament.
Lorenzo, who was absent at the time of her illness
and loved her with brotherly affection, sent his own
doctor to attend her, and received daily reports of her
condition. When she was borne to her grave in
Ognissanti, all Florence flocked to look once more
on the lovely face that was even fairer in death than
in life, and endless were the elegies and sonnets com-
posed in her honour. The two portraits of Simonetta
by Sandro Botticelli in the Medici collection, which
Vasari mentions, have disappeared, and the bust in
the Pitti, which Mr. Berenson ascribes to Amico di
Sandro, does scanty justice to her beauty. Piero di
Cosimo, who was a boy of fourteen when Simonetta
died, must have painted her portrait from some medal
or drawing, but he has succeeded in rendering the
spiritual charm and vivacity of her countenance. A
striped scarf is thrown over her shoulders, her golden
hair is braided with pearls and rubies, and a jewel
in the shape of a serpent with dark-green scales is
twisted round her white neck, while the panel bears
the inscription " Simonetta Januensis Vespucciar

Several other portraits by Piero's hand, all marked
with the same note of distinction, have been pre-

LA BELLA SIMONETTA (CHANTILLY)— PIERO DI COSIMO.

To face page 2S2

I52I] PORTRAITS 283

served, and give us a high idea of his skill in the
delineation of character. There is the dark-eyed
warrior in gleaming armour of the National Gallery,
with the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza
della Signoria behind him, and the Florentine matron
with her pet rabbit in her lap, in the Jarves Collec-
tion in the United States. There are the portraits of
his own intimate friends, Giuliano di San Gallo and
his father, which Vasari describes, and which Signor
Frizzoni discovered at the Hague, the one holding
a pair of compasses, the other a sheet of paper in
his hands. And there is Caterina Sforza, the heroic
Madonna who held the citadel of Forli against Caesar
Borgia and the combined French and papal armies,
and who came to end her days in the home of her
Medici husband.

As a young man, Piero di Cosimo frequently
devoted his talents to the preparation of the carnival
pageants and masquerades in which the Florentines
took delight, and the Medici were glad to avail them-
selves of his inventive powers in the festas with which
they amused the people. At the Carnival of 151 1, his
weird fancy found expression in a triumphal car of
Death, which paraded the streets drawn by black
buffaloes, and escorted by a corps of horsemen in
black, bearing sable banners and chanting the
Miserere. This gruesome fantasy, as Vasari after-
wards heard from Piero's pupil, Andrea del Sarto,
was intended to be a secret prophecy of the return
of the Medici, and was accordingly warmly applauded
by their partisans, as if it were " a resurrection from
death to life."

From his youth Piero di Cosimo had been a way-

284 PIERO DI COSIMO [1462-

ward and eccentric being, full of strange ideas and
unreasonable caprices. He never would allow the
vines and fig-trees of his garden to be pruned or
trained, but allowed them to run wild, saying that
Nature must have her way. And he would stand
for hours watching the clouds and framing fantastic
landscapes and cities out of their changing shapes,
much after the fashion suggested by Leonardo in
his book on Painting. But after his master's death,
his dislike of society and aversion to his fellow-
creatures increased with every year, until in his last
days he became a complete misanthrope. He lived
alone, without servants or companions, and only a
few intimate friends were admitted to his house. His
daily fare consisted chiefly of hard-boiled eggs, which
he cooked, by fifty at a time, in the water which he
used to heat his size. He was terribly afraid of
thunder and lightning, and would close all the doors
and windows, and crouch in a corner, with his head
under his mantle, until the storm had passed away.
And he had a perfect horror of noises, whether of
screaming children, church-bells, or singing friars.
Even the buzzing of flies excited his wrath beyond
control, and he would fly into a rage with the very
shadows on the wall. When he was ill, he refused
the help of either doctors or nurses, and was fond of
contrasting the misery of a death-bed, surrounded by
weeping friends and disturbed by the visits of tire-
some doctors and unfeeling servants, with the end of
the victim of justice, who goes to the scaffold in the
light of day and fulness of strength, attended by
priests who pray that angels may receive his soul,
and followed by the blessings and sympathy of

ISI2]

CHIEF WORKS

285

waiting crowds. He must have rejoiced that
death came suddenly to him at the last. One
morning in the year 1521, he was found dead
at the foot of his stairs, and was buried by
his friends in the ancient church of S. Pietro
Maggiore.

Chief Works —
Florence.

Uffizi: 81. The Immaculate Conception.
82-84. Perseus and Andromeda.
13 12. The deliverance of Andromeda,
3414. Portrait of Caterina Sforza.
„ Pitti: 370. Head of Saint.

„ Spedale degli Innocenti: Madonna and Child

with Saints and Angels.
„ .S". Lorenzo: Madonna and Saints adoring the

Child.
Milan. — Palazzo Borromeo: Sala CentraU: 19. Madonna
and Child.
fi Prince Trivulzio: Madonna and Child with
Angels.
Rome. — Vatican: Sistine Chapel: Fresco — Destruction
of Pharaoh.
„ Borghese Villa: 329. Judgment of Solomon.
335. Madonna and Child.
343. Madonna and Child with
Angels.
,, Corsini: Magdalen.
Berlin. — Gallery: 107. Mars and Venus.

„ 204. Adoration of the Shepherds.

Chantilly.—" 1.2L Bella Simonetta."
Dresden. — Gallery: 20. Madonna and Child with

Angels.
The Hague. — Gallery: 254, 255. Portraits of Giuliano and

Francesco di San Gallo.
London. — National Gallery : 698. Death of Procris.

895. Portrait of Warrior.
„ Mr. Benson : Hylas and the Nymphs.
„ Mr. Ricketts : Centaurs and Lapithse,

,, il/r. ^/r^tf^ ; Madonna and Child.
Newlands. — Colonel Cornwal lis West: Visitation.

2S6 PIERO DI COSIMO [1462-1521

Chief Works {continued) —

Oxford.— Christ Church: PietA.

Newhaven U,S.A.—Jarves Collection: 68. Portrait of a

Lady with a Rabbit.
Paris, — Louvre: 1274. St. John Baptist.

1 416. Coronation of the Virgin.
1622. Madonna and Child.
Vienna. — Harrcuh Gallery : Madonna and Child with
Angels.
y, Lichtenstein Gallery : Madonna and Child.

XXIII
FRA BARTOLOMMEO

1475-1517

The same Dominican convent which once numbered
Fra Angelico among its brothers, gave the world
another painter who was reckoned among the fore-
most masters of the sixteenth century. Fra Barto*
lommeo di San Marco never attained to the intense
fervour and spirituality of Fra Giovanni, but he
was a painter of great intellectual power and deep
sincerity who gave utterance to his pure and reverent
thoughts in the more perfect language of art in his
age. He is especially interesting as the chief repre- '
sentative of Savonarola's revival, who embraced the
faith of the Friar and followed in his steps to the
end, while at the same time he was one of the first
artists to accept the ideas of the new century, to
put in practice the principles of Leonardo and prepare
the way for Raphael.

Baccio della Porta, as Fra Bartolommeo was called
in his youth, was the son of a poor muleteer named
Paolo Fattorino, who saved enough money to buy a
plot of land and a house near the Porta di San Pier
Gattolini, outside the walls of Florence. There his

287

288 FRA BARTOLOMMEO [i47S-

eldest child, a boy named Bartolommeo, was born in
1475, and became known as Baccio della Porta. At
nine years old he was placed, by the sculptor Bene-
detto da Majano's advice, in the bottega of Cosimo
Rosselli, where he was employed to grind colours
and sweep out the shopy^and soon showed himself
so capable and trustworthy that his master often sent
him to receive payments. {His sweet and gentle
nature won the hearts of his companions, especially
of another apprentice named Mariotto Albertinelli,
who was about a year older, and who became his
closest friend. rThe two lads," says Vasari, "became,
as it were, one body and soul." Yet from the first
these young students were very different in their
tastes. Baccio loved to study Masaccio's frescoes
in the dim chapel of the Carmine, while Mariotto
preferred to copy antiques in the Medici gardens.
When Savonarola's preaching stirred all Florence to
its depths, Baccio was daily to be found among the
1 crowds in the Duomo who listened gladly to his
/ words and wept over his pathetic appeals, while
Mariotto joined the opposite faction of the Arrabbiatiy
and openly scoffed at the piagnoni. But the tie that
bound the friends together was too strong to be
lightly severed, and I'when, in 1492, the death of
Baccio*s father and step-mother left a family of
young brothers dependent upon his exertions, he
and Mariotto opened a shop together and began to
accept commissions on their own account J

It is difficult to point with certainty to any pictures
which Baccio executed at this early period, but the
Madonna adoring the Child, in the Visconti-Venostk
Collection in Milan, the " Noli me Tangere " in the

1517] A PIAGNONE PAINTER 289

Louvre, and the Nativity and Circumcision in the
Uffizi, were probably among the devotional pictures
which he painted, according to Vasari, for private
oratories and houses in these days of revived
religious enthusiasm. The last-named panels were
originally intended for the doors of a tabernacle
containing a Virgin, by Donatello, which Filippino's
patron, Piero del Pugliese, held among his choicest
treasures, and are remarkable for their exquisite
finish and tender devotion. The portrait of Savona-
rola, which Baccio, "moved by his ardent love for
the Friar," painted about this time, is said to be still
preserved in a private collection at Prato, and bears
the inscription, Hieronymi Ferrariensis missi a Deo^
prophetoe effigies, which was discovered under a coat of
paint, with which the words were concealed in the days
of persecution. A copy of this interesting picture,
which shows the Friar's powerful head and striking
features in all their rugged grandeur, may be seen
in the cell formerly inhabited by Savonarola in San
Marco. The young painter himself took an active
part in the piagnone movement. Together with
Lorenzo di Credi and many other artists, he laid his
nude studies on the pyre erected on the Piazza at the
Carnival of 1497, and saw the flames consume them.
And he was among the gallant little band of defenders
who rallied round their beloved leader on the fatal
night when the furious mob stormed the convent and
dragged the Frate to prison and death. The terrible
events of these days, and the months of misery and
despair that followed, were a crushing blow to the
ardent young painter, who had looked on the Friar
as the prophet sent from God to be the deliverer of

T

290 FRA BARTOLOMMEO [i47S-

Florence. For a time he struggled bravely to work
at his art, and, at Gerozzo Dini's request, began to
paint the fresco of the Last Judgment on the walls
of the Campo Santo attached to the hospital of S.
Maria Nuova. To-day only faded and blackened
fragments of this once noble work remain, but there
is still a monumental grandeur about the composition,
a dignity and elevation of type which are profoundly
impressive. In this grand conception of the avenging
Judge appearing with uplifted arm on the clouds of
heaven, attended by all his Saints, we see how in
those dark hours Savonarola's follower clung to the
eternal truths for which his master had lived and
died. But the task was beyond his strength, and,
when the upper part of the fresco was finished, Baccio
?eft the rest to be finished by his friend Albertinelli,
on the 26th of July, 1500, and took the vows of a
novice in the Dominican convent at Prato.
\ • During the next four years he gave up painting en-
tirely, and only resumed his brush at the urgent en-
treaty of the Prior of San Marco, the wise and learned
Santi-Pagnini. Henceforth Fra Bartolommeo, as he
was now known, resolved to devote his art to the
glory of God and the benefit of his community,
remembering how Savonarola had encouraged all
friars who had no vocation for preaching or theology
to study painting and architecture. His first altar-
piece was the Vision of St. Bernard, which he agreed
to paint, on the 13th of November, 1504, for a chapel
in the Badia, and which now hangs, much injured
and re-painted, in the Accademia. A prolonged dis-
pute arose over the price of this picture between the
Prior and Bernardo del Bianco, by whose order it was

XSI7] INFLUENCE OF RAPHAEL 291

painted ; several arbiters were called in, and it was
not till 1 507 that the painter finally received the sum
of 100 florins.

In 1504, the same year in which Fra Bartolommeo
resumed the practice of his art, Raphael came t<r
Florence and was deeply impressed by the Dominican
artist's fresco of the Last Judgment. He sought out
Fra Bartolommeo and was constantly in his company,
being anxious to learn the secret of his fine colour
and his method of handling oils, i Many of Raphael's
works at this period, especially the fresco in S. Severo
at Perugia, and the Madonna of S. Antonio, now in
America, bear witness to the attention with which he
studied Fra Bartolommeo's modelling and composi-
tion, and even in his drawings he adopted the charcoal
which the friar employed habitually, On his part,
Fra Bartolommeo felt the power of the great Urbinate's
gpell, and the fresco of the Madonna clasping the
Child in her arms which he painted on the wall of
Savonarola's cell in San Marco, closely resembles
Raphael's Casa Tempi Madonna, at Munich. The in-
fluence of Leonardo, who was engaged about tnis
time on the fresco in the Council Hall, is even more
evident in the masterly drawings by the friar's hand
which are to be found in the Uflizi and other galleries,
jind it was the close study of this artist's works which
produced the next development of Fra Bartolommeo's
style. To this period we may also ascribe the fresco of
the Crucifixion in the Refectory of San Marco, and the
lunette in which the friar repeats Fra Angelico's well-
known subject of Christ and his disciples at Emmaus,
and introduces the portraits of his friend the Prior
and of Fra Niccolo, afterwards Cardinal Schomberg.

S93 FRA BARTOLOMMEO [i475-

In 1508, Raphael left Florence for Rome, and Fra
Bartolommeo obtained leave to go to Venice, where, in
company with the //^^«f?«^ sculptor, Baccio da Monte-
lupo, he visited the churches and palaces on the
lagoons, and saw the Madonnas of Giovanni Bellini and
the frescoes of Titian and Giorgione in the glory of
their first freshness. At the prayer of the Dominicans
of S. Pietro Martire at Murano, he agreed to paint an
altar-piece for their church, and received twenty-five
florins in advance, together with three more to buy
colours, hoping to raise the rest of the money by the
sale of some letters of St Katherine of Siena in their
possession. Immediately after his return to Florence
the painter set to work on this picture — the noble Vision
of God the Father adored by St. Katherine of Siena
and the Magdalen, now in the Lucca Gallery. But the
friars of Murano were unable to raise the remainder
of the 100 florins which they had promised the painter,
and, at the end of three years, Fra Bartolommeo
gave the work to his friend Prior Pagnini, who
presented it to the church of San Romano in his
native city of Lucca. In the same year, 1509, the
master painted another fine altar-piece of the Virgin
enthroned between St. John the Baptist and a youth-
ful St. Stephen, with the palm of victory in his hand
and the stones of martyrdom on his head, which still
adorns the Duomo of Lucca. Here the angels flying
in the air and holding the crown over the Virgin's
head are very similar to those introduced by Raphael
in his unfinished Madonna del Baldacchino, while the
lovely cherub playing the lute on the steps of the
throne was evidently suggested by the child angels
in Giaa Bellini s Venetian altar-pieces Both pictures

ISI7] PARTNERSHIP WITH ALBERTINELLI 293

are exceedingly rich in colour, and show the mastery
of chiaroscuro which the painter had acquired from
the study of Leonardo's style. In his fresco of the
Last Judgment, Fra Bartolommeo had already re-
vealed himself as a master of great and original
power. This imposing design forms, as it were, a link
between the old world and the new, and takes us
back, on the one hand, to the mediaeval conceptions
of early Tuscan masters in the Campo Santo, while
on the other it points onward to Raphael's Disputa.
Now, under the irresistible might of Leonardo's in-
fluence, the Dominican artist advances a step further
and becomes the representative of the modern style,
with its abstract types, its scientific disposition of
groups and masses of light and shade, its grand
and monumental composition.

^'^'^6i_j^509, the year in which these two masterpieces
were completed, Fra Bartolommeo took his old friend
and associate Mariotto Albertinelli into partnership
with him once more. Now that Leonardo, Michel-
angelo and Raphael were all absent, the Dominican
master had more orders than he knew how to execute,
and found himself the most popular painter in
Florence. A contract was drawn up between the
Prior of San Marco and Albertinelli, by which the
convent was to supply the necessary materials, and
on the dissolution of the partnership, the works
painted by both artists were to be sold, and the
profits divided between them. The pictures which
the two masters painted separately bear their respec-
tive signatures, while the works which they executed
jointly, are inscribed with a monogram of the cross
between two rings. For three years the two artists

294 ^RA BARTOLOMMEO [i475-

worked together in perfect harmony, and many were
the fine paintings that issued from the convent-work-
shop. One of the most delightful of Fra Bartolommeo's
smaller pictures, the Holy Family, at Panshanger,
belongs to this period, and was probably painted
in 1509, soon after the Madonna at Lucca. The
tender charm of Raphael's art and the delicate tints
of Leonardo's colouring are blended together in this
happy group of Mother and Children resting under
palm and pomegranate trees in the sunny landscape,
while St. Joseph, a venerable form with a grandly
modelled head, leans on his staff behind them.
After the dissolution of the partnership between
Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli, this picture was
bought by Filippi Salviati, a devoted follower of
Savonarola and intimate friend of the painter, who
already owned the artist's portrait of the martyred
Friar. The same delicate feeling and gentle grace
appear in the altar-piece of the Virgin and Saints,
in the Church of San Marco, a picture which was
painted in 1509, and which, Bottari tells us, was
actually taken for a work of Raphael by the artist
Pietro da Cortona. The large altar-piece of the
Marriage of St. Katherine in the Louvre, was also
painted for San Marco, but was bought by the
Signory in 151 1, and presented to the French
ambassador, Jacques Hurault, Bishop of Autun.
A second version of the subject, on a still grander
scale, bearing the date 1512 and the words ''Orate
pro Pictore" was executed in the following year, to
replace the former work, and is now in the Pitti.
Another fine composition of the Virgin in Glory,
adored by angels and saints, is still to be seen

ISI71 A CHILD OF THE RENAISSANCE 295

in the Cathedral of Besan^on, and was painted for
Ferry Carondelet, Chancellor of Flanders, and envoy
of the Emperor Maximilian to the papal court. The
donor, who was also Archdeacon of Besan^on, appears
kneeling in the foreground, and the picture is men-
tioned in the account-books of San Marco as having
been sent to a " M. Ferrino " in Flanders.

In all of these works Fra Bartolommeo shows
himself the true child of the Renaissance. His
design is symmetrical and imposing, his figures are
admirably modelled, while his thorough knowledge
of chiaroscuro and anatomy are plainly seen. The
Dominican master indeed devoted special attention
to the structure of the human frame, and was one
of the first Florentine artists who made use of
jointed lay-figures. Unfortunately, in his anxiety
to obtain strong relief, and to rival the roundness
of Leonardo's forms, he made use of bone-black
and printer's ink to deepen the shadows, a practice
which proved disastrous in many instances, and
ruined the lovely colour which is so marked a
feature of his earlier works.

I In January, 1512, the partnership between Fra
Bartolommeo and Albertinelli was dissolved, and
the sum of 450 florins, produced by the sale of their
joint works during the last three years, was divided
between Mariotto and the convent. Fourteen months
before, on the 26th of November, 15 10, Fra Barto-
lommeo had received a commission from Pietro
Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of the Republic, to paint
the altar-piece for the Hall of the Great Council in
the Palazzo Pubblico. When the hall had first been
erected in Savonarola's days, this order had been

296 FRA BARTOLOMMEO [i475-

given to Filippino, but afterwards abandoned in the
troubled times which followed. Now the Medici
had been once more expelled, and Fra Girolamo's
dream of a free city was again revived. Once more
the old cries were heard in the streets, and Christ
was once more proclaimed King in Florence. Fra
Bartolommeo received the Gonfaloniere's commission
with joy, and set to work with enthusiasm on the
great picture which was to commemorate this
event. This noble cartoon, in brown monochrome,
of the " Virgin pleading for the liberties of Florence,"
with St. Anne and the ten patron Saints of the
Florentines at her side, is now in the Uffizi, and
the original drawings, together with several studies
of the different figures, are still preserved in the
same collection. But before the work was finished,
another revolution had taken place. The Medici
returned again, and the short-lived dream of liberty
was over. Eventually the cartoon was purchased
by Ottaviano de' Medici, a warm admirer of Fra
Bartolommeo's art, and placed in the church of S.
Lorenzo.

In 1 5 14, Fra Bartolommeo listened to his friend
Raphael's urgent entreaties, and paid a visit to Rome,
where he was t4ie guest of Fra Mariano Fetti, the
keeper of the papal seals, at the Dominican convent of
S. Silvestro on the Quirinal. But the climate affected
his health, and at the end of two months he left Rome,
seriously ill with malarial fever, and was sent by his
Superior to the country hospital of the Dominicans
at Pian di Mugnone. During the next two years, in
spite of failing health and frequent returns of fever, Fra
Bartolommeo's activity was greater than ever. The

GROUP FROM THE MADONNA BELLA MISERICORDLl (LUCCA).
FRA BARTOLOMMEO.

[ To face page 296

ISI7] MADONNA AT LUCCA 297

colossal St. Mark, of the Pitti, a figure evidently in-
spired by the sight of Michelangelo's prophets in
the Sistina, was painted in 15 14, as well as a
nude St. Sebastian, which hung for some time
in San Marco. This figure, however, offended some
of the more scrupulous friars, and was eventually
sold to the French king's agent, Giovanni Battista
della Palla. In 1515, the artist completed the An-
nunciation, in the Louvre, and the Apostles Peter
and Paul, in the Quirinal, which he presented to his
host, Fra Mariano, and which, according to Vasari,
were retouched by Raphael at the painter's request.
And in the same year, at the wish of the Dominican
friars of the convent of San Romano at Lucca, he
paintec^ the great canvas of the Madonna della Miseri-
cordia, with the lovely groups of women and children
among the crowd of worshippers taking shelter under
the blue mantle of the Virgin- Mother. Unfortunately,
the works of this last period, in spite of many beauties,
all reveal the same fatal tendency to emulate the
statuesque grandeur of Michelangelo's style which
Fra Bartolommeo shared with all his Florentine con-
temporaries. To this vain and futile endeavour the
painter sacrificed his own exquisite sense of beauty
and symmetry, and that instinctive grace and tender
feeling which are the charm of his earlier works. ^)

The prolonged strain of continual effort and unin-
terrupted labours had seriously affected the Friar's
health, and, in October, 15 15, he once more sought rest
and change of air at Pian di Mugnone, where he painted
a fresco of the Annunciation in the convent church
of S. Maddalena. On his way back to Florence, he
stopped at his father's native village of Suffip-nano,

298 FRA BARTOLOMMEO ii475-

and while staying with his humble kinsfolk in this
place, received a pressing invitation from King
Francis I. to visit his court. He promised to con-
sider the subject, but was detained in Florence for
the present by work for his own convent. His
presence was particularly required that winter, as
Pope Leo X. came to Florence ; and when, at the
prayer of the friars of San Marco, he issued a decree
for the canonization of S. Antonino, Fra Barto-
lommeo commemorated the event by painting the
little picture of the burial of the good Archbishop,
which is now at Panshanger. The Pope was known
to be a great admirer of Fra Bartolommeo's work,
and when, in 15 12, he visited Florence, Prior Pagnini
had presented him with one of che painter's most
charming works — the dainty little Nativity in the
Mond Collection. A Madonna in Sir Frederick Cook's
collection, and the lovely Holy Family, of the Corsini
Palace, a gem of pure colour and miniature-like finish,
which was painted for that well-known patron of art,
Angelo Doni, both bear the date of 15 16. Another
wealthy merchant, Salvatore Billi, employed the friar
to paint the large Salvator Mundi, of the Pitti, and
the figures of the prophets Job and Isaiah, in the
Uffizi, for his chapel in the Annunziata. This altar-
piece was bought early in the next century by
Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, after whose death, in 1663,
it was removed to the Pitti and divided into separate
portions. The Assumption, at Naples, was also
painted in 1516, for a church at Prato, while the
Presentation, in the Vienna Gallery, was painted for
the Chapel of the Novices in San Marco, where it re-
mained for more than two hundred years. Last of

ISI71 LAST WORKS 299

9 all, Fra Bartolommeo painted his great altar-piece
of the Deposition, in the Pitti, for the Augustinian
convent outside the Porta San Gallo. The shadow
of the coming end may have helped to deepen the
pathos and reverent feeling which give this noble
picture so high a place among the works of a
decadent age. On the 15th of June, 15 17, Fra
Bartolommeo seat a little Madonna to Alfonso
d*Este, Duke of Ferrara, together with a head of
Christ for his wife, Lucrezia Borgia, excusing himself
for his delay in gratifying the Duke's wishes, owing
to pressure of work. Then he went to spend the
summer months at his favourite retreat, Pian di
Mugnone, and enjoy a short interval of sorely-
needed rest. But he soon took up his brush again
and painted a fresco of Christ appearing to the
Magdalen, in the convent church, and a portrait
of Savonarola as S. Pietro Martire, in the Dominican
habit, with the sword-cut in his head. This precious
picture, in which the painter gave a last proof of the
faithful affection with which he clung to the memory
of his beloved teacher, was removed to San Marco
after Fra Bartolommeo's death, and fondly treasured
by the brothers as a relic of their most illustrious
artist. Early in the autumn he returned to Florence,
but a fresh attack of fever carried him off in a few
days. He died on the 6th of October, 15 17, at the
age of forty-two, and was buried with all honour in
his own convent church.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Accademia: 5S. St. Vincent.

97. Vision of St. Bernard.
168, 171, 173. Frescoes — Heads of
Madonnas and Saints.

300 FRA BARTOLOMMEO Ii475-iSi7

Chief Works {continued) —

Florence. — Accademia: 172. Portrait of Savonarola.
„ Pitti: 64. Deposition.

125. St. Mark.

159. Christ and the Evangelists.
208. Madonna and Child with Saints.
256. Holy Family.
377. Fresco — Ecce Homo.
•f Uffizi: 1 1 26. Isaiah.
1 1 30. Job.

1 161. Diptych of Nativity and Circumcision.
1265. Madonna and Child with Saints
(unfinished).
i» S. Marco^ Refectory: Fresco — Crucifixion.

„ Savonarola! s Cell: Madonna and Child.
„ Portrait of Friar, Christ at Emmaus.
„ Church: Madonna and Child with Saints.
f, S. Maria Nuova: Last Judgment (partly). Now
in Uffizi.
Lucca. — Duomo : Madonna and Child with Saints.
„ Gallery: Sala II. : 5. Madonna della Misericordia.

12. God the Father adored by
Saints.
Plan di Mugnone. — S, Maddalena: Frescoes — Annunciation,

Noli me Tangere.
Naples. — Sala Grande: 61. Assumption.
Rome. — Corsini Gallery: 579. Holy Family,

„ Lateran: SS. Peter and Paul.
Berlin. — Gallery: 249. Assumption (partly).
Besan^on. — Cathedral: Madonna in Glory, and Saints.
London. — National Gallery : 1694. Madonna and Child.
„ Mr. Mond: Holy Family, Nativity.

,, Earl of Northbrook : Holy Family (partly).

Panskanger. — Holy Family, Burial of S. Antonino.
Paris. — Louvre: 11 15. Noli me Tangere.

1 1 53. Annunciation.

1 1 54. Madonna and Child with Saints.
Richmond. — Sir Frederick Cook : Holy Family.
Vienna. — Gallery: 34. Madonna and Child.

38. Madonna and Saints.
41. Presentation.
St Petersburg. — Hermitage : 20. Madonna and Child with foui
Angels.

XXIV
MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI

1474-1515

The great influence exerted by Fra Bartolommeo on
his contemporaries is proved by the number of excel-
lent masters who adopted his manner and worked in
his style. Chief among these was Mariotto Alberti-
nelli, or, as his family was originally called, BertinellL
He was born in Florence on the 13th of October, 1474,
and, after practising his father's trade of gold-beater for
several years, was apprenticed to Cosimo Rosselli, and
learnt painting from this master and his more dis-
tinguished assistant, Piero di Cosimo. In their work-
shop Mariotto first met Baccio della Porta, and formed
that friendship which lasted to the end of his life.
Albertinelli was, writes Vasari, another Fra Barto-
lommeo. So entirely did he sink his own artistic
individuality in that of his friend, that it is often
difficult to distinguish between the work of the two
artists. But, as we have already seen, Mariotto's
character and habits were strangely unlike those of
the Dominican friar. Baccio was gentle and serious,
fond of study and music, and devoted to Fra Girolamo
and his teaching. Mariotto was a gay, reckless

SOI

302 MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI [i474-

prodigal who railed at priests and friars, took delight
in wild pranks and noisy company, and is justly
described by Vasari as a ^'persona inquietissimar
From the first he proclaimed himself a partisan of
the Medici, and received his earliest commissions from
Madonna Alfonsina Orsini, the wife of Piero de'
Medici. He painted this lady's portrait and executed
several pictures for her, which were sent to Rome and
afterwards became the property of Caesar Borgia.
An altar-piece of the Annunciation, in the Duomo
of Volterra, and a lovely little triptych of the Virgin
between St. Katharine and St. Barbara, in the Poldi-
Pezzoli Museum at Milan, are the earliest of his works
now in existence. This last bears the date of 1500,
and was, until lately, ascribed to Fra Bartolommeo,
whose early panels in the Uffizi it resembles closely.
When Baccio took the vows of the Dominican Order,
he begged Albertinelli to finish the fresco of the Last
Judgment, which he had begun in the Campo Santo
of S. Maria Nuova, since it distressed him to break
his contract with his employer, Gerozzo Dini.
Mariotto consented, and introduced the portraits of
Gerozzo and of the master of the hospital among
the blessed, and of himself and his scholar Giuliano
Bugiardini among the dead who rise from their
tombs at the trumpet-sound. The skill with which
he performed his task added greatly to his reputa-
tion, and he opened a shop on his own account in
the Via Gualfonda. Here, in 1503, he painted his
finest work, the Visitation. This famous picture
was ordered by a congregation of priests for a
church dedicated to St. Martin and St Elizabeth,
where it remained until it was removed to the

ISIS] THE VISITATION 303

Uffizi. The treatment of the subject follows that of
Giotto's in the Arena Chapel, but the traditional types
are cleverly adapted to the style of the painter's own
day. The porch of Elizabeth's house is transformed
into a Renaissance portico with elegant pilasters
adorned with arabesques, and only the two figures
essential to the story are retained. Both the easy
folds of the drapery and the glowing colours of
Mary's deep blue mantle and of Elizabeth's green
robe and orange cloak, recall Fra Bartolommeo's
work. The group is arranged with masterly skill,
the forms of the meeting women are framed in
by the archway, and the eager action of the aged
Saint, as she bends forward to greet the Mother
of her Lord, with an expression of tender sympathy
on her face, is finely rendered. But in those golden
days, even second-rate artists knew instinctively
how to design great pictures, and occasionally
attained to the highest excellence. The predella
of the picture, consisting of three small subjects, —
the Annunciation, Nativity, and Presentation — is in
the Uffizi, as well as the original drawing of the
Visitation.

A round of the Madonna adoring the Christ, which
is more in Lorenzo di Credi's style, was painted about
the same time, while a large altar-piece of the Virgin
between St. Jerome and St. Zenobius, in the Louvre,
was finished in 1506, for a chapel in the Trinita. In
the same year, Albertinelli was employed by the
monks of the Certosa in Val d'Ema, three miles
outside the Porta Romana, to paint a fresco of the
Crucifixion in their Chapter-house. This fine work
is executed in Fra Bartolommeo's manner, but the

304 MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI [i474-

figures of the Magdalen and St. John and the angels
hovering in the air to receive the blood that drops
from the sacred wounds, are distinctly Peruginesque
in feeling. Mariotto's natural dislike of monks and
friars, however, had been only increased by the loss
of his friend, and the poor Carthusians found him
and his assistants very troublesome guests. They
played tricks on the brothers and stole their meagre
allowance of daily food, until, in their anxiety to be
rid of these tormentors, the monks agreed to double
their rations, if they would finish the work as speedily
as possible, to which Mariotto and his comrades
gladly agreed, amidst shouts of noisy merriment.

About this time, Albertinelli, whose love for his
friend had never changed, agreed to take charge of
Fra Bartolommeo's brother Piero, a feeble and
vicious youth, who was a source of constant trouble
and anxiety to his family. But instead of learning
painting, Piero was always escaping from Albertinelli's
house and getting into mischief, and at length, in 15 12,
he was placed in the hospital of the Innocents, through
the intervention of Fra Bartolommeo's friend, Prior
Pagnini.

In 1509, Mariotto entered into partnership
with Fra Bartolommeo, and worked as his chief
assistant in the convent bottega during the next
three years. As a rule, the Friar seems to have
designed all the pictures which his friend painted
during this period. Three of the best, a Madonna
and Saints, Holy Trinity, and Annunciation, are in
the Academy of Florence. All three bear the dates
of 1 5 10, and are executed in Fra Bartolommeo's style,
but are not without a certain vigour and individuality

ISIS] GIVES UP PAINTING 305

of their own. A Coronation of the Virgin, with two
graceful cherubs, at Stuttgart, and two Virgin-Saints
at Siena, also belong to this period. After the dis-
solution of the partnership between him and Fra
Bartolommeo, Mariotto, in his first paroxysm of
rage and disgust, vowed that he would never touch
a brush again. For a little while he kept his resolu-
tion, married a wife named Antonia, whose father
was the owner of a wine-shop, and himself opened
a tavern near the Porta San Gallo. Here, at least,
in this " bellissima osteria^^ Mariotto declared, he
would lead a gay and joyous life, free from the
cares of perspective and anatomy, and would hear
his customers praising his good wine instead of
blaming his bad drawing. But before many months
were over, he grew tired of his new trade, and went
back to his old calling.

In March, 15 13, he painted a coat of arms adorned
with figures of Faith, Hope and Charity, over the
doors of the Medici Palace, in honour of Leo the
Tenth's accession to the Papacy. A year later
after Fra Bartolommeo's visit to Rome, he received
an invitation to paint an altar-piece in the Dominican
Convent of La Querela at Viterbo, and went on to
Rome, where Fra Mariano employed him to paint
a Marriage of St. Katherine, in the Church of S.
Silvestro. He returned to finish his work at La
Quercia, but fell ill, and was brought back in a
litter to Florence. Fra Bartolommeo hastened to
his old friend's bedside as soon as he heard of his
illness, and remained with him until he died, on the
5th of November, 151 5. Albertinelli was buried in
S. Piero Maggiore, and left one son, Biagio, who died

U

3o6 MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI [i474-

young. His best scholar was Giuliano Bugiardini, an
artist (1475- 1 554) who began life in Ghirlandajo's
studio, but early attached himself to Albertinelli,
and executed several pictures from Fra Bartolommeo's
designs. The Rape of Dinah, in the Vienna Gallery,
is said by Vasari to have been painted from a
cartoon by the Friar, but was only finished in
1 53 1, fourteen years after Fra Bartolommeo's death.
One of this master's most attractive works is a
picture of the youthful Baptist drawing water from
a stream in the desert, with a group of shepherds in
the background, which still hangs over a side-altar of
S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan. He also copied some
of Perugino's pictures, and, like most of his contem-
poraries, ultimately fell under the spell of Michel-
angelo, whom he had known in Ghirlandajo's
workshop, and who is said to have designed his
altar-piece of the Marriage of St. Katherine in
Santa Maria Novella. During the siege of Florence,
in 1529, he took shelter at Bologna, where he painted
several of his best works, and, after the restoration of
peace, returned to his native city and became one of
Michelangelo's constant companions. Bugiardini died
in 1554, and was buried in Santa Maria Novella.

Another pupil of Ghirlandajo, who also imitated
Fra Bartolommeo, was Francesco Granacci (1477-
1543). His Assumption, in the Academy of
Florence, and Madonna of the Girdle, in the
Uffizi, are executed in the Friar's style, while
his earlier works, at Berlin, betray the influence
of Michelangelo, whom he accompanied to Rome,
and of whose property in Florence he took charge,
when Buonarroti fled to Venice. In 1504, he was

iS'S] GRANACCI 307

one of the artists who met to decide on the site
of Michelangelo's David, and he remained the great
man's intimate friend to the end of his life. Like
Piero di Cosimo, Granacci was early employed by
the Medici to direct their Carnival pageants and
festivities, and erected a splendid triumphal arch,
adorned with allegorical paintings and chiaroscuro
figures, on the occasion of Pope Leo the Tenth's
visit to Florence in 1515. In 1523, he assisted
Andrea del Sarto and his companions in the
decoration of Margherita Borgherini's bridal chamber,
and the panels on the story of Joseph which he
painted on that occasion are preserved in the Uffizi,
while another set of small subjects on the life of
S. Apollonia and other saints are divided between
the Munich Gallery and the Academy of Florence.
Granacci's best pupil was Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, who
was so sickly a child at his birth, that his parents
despaired of rearing him, and believed his recovery
was solely due to the wax candles and votive gifts
which they offered at the shrine of the Madonna
delle Carcere in Prato, where the boy was brought
up. He was only eleven when his father died,
but made rapid progress under Granacci's teaching,
and gave promise of an excellence to which he never
attained. His early works, three panels of Angels,
in the Academy of Florence, and a Nativity, at St.
Petersburg, passed under Granacci's name until quite
lately, while a Coronation, of 1504, in the Louvre,
closely resembles Fra Bartolommeo's style and
colouring, and both the Procession to Calvary, in the
National Gallery, and the Marriage of St. Katherine,
at La Quiete, bear marks of Leonardo's influence.

3o8 MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI [i474-

Among the best of his later works are the Miracles
of St. Zenobius, in the Uffizi, and the graceful pre-
della in the oratory of the Bigallo, containing a repre-
sentation of the brothers of the Misericordia bearing
a dead man to the grave, as well as several admirable
portraits, which were formerly ascribed to Leonardo or
Raphael. Ridolfo became an intimate friend of the
last-named master, whom he met in Fra Bartolommeo's
workshop, and who is said to have employed him
to paint the blue drapery in his picture of " La
Belle Jardiniere." When Raphael went to Rome,
he tried to induce his friend to accompany him, but
Ridolfo declared that he loved his native city too
well, and could not live out of sight of the Duomo.
He married young, and his wife Contessina bore him
no less than fifteen children, several of whom became
merchants and settled in Ferrara, or went to France.
This master was constantly employed by the Medici,
to arrange the wedding festivities and funeral pro-
cessions which had become so important a part of
the artist's calling in these degenerate times. The
decorations of the Pope's residence near S. Maria
Novella and of the Medici Palace were entrusted
to him at the visit of Leo X., and he lived to erect
a triumphal arch for the entry of the Emperor
Charles V., in 1336, and to superintend the rejoicings
at the wedding of Duke Cosimo I. In these latter
years he became court-painter and architect to
the ducal house, and was honoured with the title
of Master of the Cathedral. An immense number
of assistants were always employed in his shop,
and, in spite of his large family, he was one of
the wealthiest and most prosperous artists of the

1515] RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO 309

day. Ridolfo lived to be seventy-eight, and although a
great sufferer from gout and other infirmities, retained
his activity and cheerfulness to the last. Once, when
the Duke was absent from home, he restored a paint-
ing in the palace in a single day, and told his friends he
could go to bed happy, for he had given back youth
to an old man, raised a dead being to life, and trans-
formed a work of ugliness into a thing of beauty.

Chief Works —
Mariotto Albertinelli :

Florence, — Accademia: 63. Trinity.

167. Madonna and Child with Saints.
169. Annunciation.
„ Pitti: 365. Holy Family.

,, Uffizi: 1259. Visitation and Predella.

,, Corsini Gallery : i6o. Holy Family.

Certosa di Val d'Ema : Fresco — Crucifixion.
Bergamo. — Lochis Gallery: 203. Crucifixion.

„ Morelli Collection: 32. St. John and the Mag-

dalene.
Milan. — Poldi-Pezzoli Museum : i^*j*j. Triptych.
Pisa. — S. Caterina : Madonna and Child with Saints.
Rome. — Borghese Villa: 310. Madonna and Child with

St. John. 421. Head of Christ.
Siena. — Gallery: 564. St. Katherine.

565. Magdalene.
Venice. — Seminario: 18. Madonna.
Volterra. — Duomo : Annunciation.
Geneva. — Museum: Annunciation.
The Hague. — Gallery: 306. Holy Family,
Munich. — Pinacothek : 1057. Annunciation.
Paris. — Louvre: 11 14. Madonna and Child with Saints.
Stuttgart. — 242-244. Coronation and Cherubs.
Cambridge. — Fitzwilliam Museufn: 162. Madonna and
Child with St. John.

GlULIANO BUGIARDINI :

Florence. — Pitti: 140. Portrait of Lady.
„ Uffizi: 213. Madonna and Child.

,, 3451. Madonna and Child with St. John.

3IO MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI [i474-

Chief Works [continued) —

GlULIANO BUGIARDINI :

Florence, — S, Maria Novella : Martyrdom of St. Katherine.
Bologna. — Gallery: St. John Baptist.

Madonna and Child with Saints.
Madonna and Child.
Milan. — S. Maria delle Grazie : St. John Baptist.
Modena. — Gallery: 334. Madonna and Child with St. John.
Rome. — Borghese Villa: 443. Madonna and Child with St.
John.
„ Colonna Gallery : 136. Madonna and Child.
,, Corsini Gallery : 580. Madonna and Child.
Turin. — Gallery : 114. Madonna and Child with St. John.
,, Museo Civico: Madonna and Child with St. John.

Berlin. — Gallery: 142, 149. Story of Tobias.

263. Madonna and Child with
Saints.
Vienna.— Gallery : 36. Rape of Dinah.
St. Petersburg.— Hermitage : 35. Holy Family.
Francesco Granacci :

Florence. — Accademia: (iZ. Assumption.

285-290. Legend of S. ApoUonia,
„ Pitti: 345. Holy Family.

„ Uffiti: 1249, 1282. Story of Joseph.

1280. Madonna della Cintola.
Rome. — Borghese Villa: 371. Maddalena Strozzi as St.
Katherine.

„ Corsini Gallery : STi' ^^^^'
Berlin. — Gallery: 88. Madonna and Child with Saints.
„ ,, 97. Madonna and Child with Saints.

229. Trinity.
Munich.— Pinacothek . 1061-1064. Saints.

,, „ 1065. Holy Family.

Oxford. — Christ Church: St. Francis.
„ University Galleries : 23. St. Anthony and Angel.

Panshanger : Portrait of Lady.
Warwick Castle: Assumption.
St» Petersburg.— Hermitage : 22. Nativity.
RiDOLFO GhiRLANDAJO;

Florence, — Accademia : 83, 87. Angels.

„ Pitti: 20*J. Portrait of a Goldsmith.

224. Portrait of Lady.

I5I5] RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO'S WORKS 311

Chief Works {continued) —
RiDOLFO Ghirlandajo :

Florence. — Uffizi : 1275, 1277. Miracles of S. Zanobl
Palazzio Vecchio: Frescoes.
Bigallo: Predella.
Corsini Gallery: 129. Portrait
Palazzo Torrigiani: Portrait.
La Quiete : Marriage of St. Katherine, St Se-
bastian.
Pistoia. — St. Pietro: Madonna and Child with Saints.
Praia. — Duomo : Madonna della Cintola.
Berlin. — Gallery: 91. Nativity.
Buda Pesih. — Gallery : 58. Nativity.
London. — National Gallery : 1143. Procession to Calvary.

„ Mr. Salting: Portrait of Girolamo Benivieni.

Paris. — Louvre: 1324. Coronation.

St, Petersburg. — Hermitage: 22. Adoration of Christ by
Virgin and Saints.

40. Portrait of Old Man (often ascribed
to Raphael).

XXV
ANDREA DEL SARTO

J486-1531

Andrea del Sarto stands in the foremost rank
of Florentine painters of the sixteenth century, and,
after Leonardo and Michelangelo left home, was the
only master who rivalled Fra Bartolommeo in the ex-
cellence of his art and the greatness of his reputation.
If he never attained the Dominican painter's depth
and elevation of feeling, he excelled him in the beauty
of his drawing and in the harmony and transparency
of his colouring. The completeness of his technique
won for him the name of Andrea senza erroriy the
faultless painter, and it is a sure proof of his genius
that, at a time when Michelangelo and Leonardo
reigned supreme, he should have succeeded in retain-
ing his artistic personality. Unfortunately, he lacked
the higher intellectual and spiritual gifts which are
i needful for the artist's full development, and, in spite
^ of his consummate skill and unerring science, never
j attained the noble types and ideal beauty of the greatest
i masters. The natural timidity of his nature and weak-
\i ness of his character may account in a measure for his
comparative failure, and Vasari was convinced that

SIS

14861531] A SCHOLAR OF PIERO DI COSIMO 313

he made a fatal mistake in leaving France, and
throwing away the opportunities of larger and more
important works than he could find in Florence. But
the high opinion which other masters had of his
powers is shown by the famous words of Michel-
angelo, who had known Andrea in Florence, and who
said one day to Raphael : " There is a little man in
Florence who, were he ever employed on such great
works as these, would bring out the sweat upon your
brow."

Andrea d'Agnolo, as he generally signs himself,
was the son of a tailor named Agnolo, who lived in
the parish of Santa Maria Novella, and was born on
the i6th of July, i486, and baptised on the following
day. At seven years old he was placed in a gold-
smith's shop, but his talent for drawing soon attracted
the notice of an inferior artist, named Barile, who
taught him for three years and then recommended
him to Piero di Cosimo. Under the influence of this
master, who, Vasari tells us, was then held to be one
of the best in Florence, Andrea made rapid progress,
and amazed every one by the facility of his drawing
and his skill in handling colours. Piero, we are told,
had the greatest affection for his brilliant pupil and
heard with indescribable delight that Andrea spent
all his leisure hours in copying the cartoons of
Leonardo and Michelangelo in the Pope's hall, and
was already known as the cleverest of all the artists
who met to study these masterpieces. But Piero's
eccentricities at length forced Andrea to leave his
house, and, when in 1508, he matriculated in the
Painters' Guild, he opened a workshop on the Piazza
del Grano, with another promising student, Francia-

314 ANDREA DEL SARTO [1486-

hlglo, who had lately left Albertinelli's bottega. The
little panel of Christ appearing to the Magdalene,
now in the Academy, is the earliest of Andrea's works
that we have, and is mentioned by Vasari as having
been painted for the Augustinian convent outside the
Porta San Gallo. The bright tints and charming
landscape of this youthful work recall Piero di
Cosimo's style, and already display the peculiar
softness and delicacy of colouring for which Andrea
became noted. Soon he obtained a more important
commission from Fra Mariano, the sacristan of the
Servi brothers, who gladly availed himself of this
opportunity to secure so promising an artist at small
cost. At his suggestion, Andrea agreed to paint
five frescoes on the life of S. Filippo Benizzi, in
the court of the Annunziata, for the sum of ten
florins a-piece. The decoration of this entrance-court
had been commenced half a century before, by Alessio
Baldovinetti, and was now completed by these clever
young sixteenth-century painters. Andrea finished
the five subjects from S. Filippo's life by the end of
1 5 10, and was induced to paint two more frescoes, a
Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, upon receiving a
further payment of forty-eight florins.

These beautiful paintings, which the Servi brothers
obtained for less than a hundred florins, were a mar-
vellous production for a youth who was little over
twenty, and remain Andrea's most charming and
attractive works. They are full of brightness and
animation, and, at the same time, display rare mastery
of design and colour. The landscape in the fresco of
the Gamblers Struck by Lightning, is remarkably fine
and varied, while the dramatic action and skilful com-

IS3I] FRESCOES OF THE ANNUNZIATA 315

position has caused the work to be compared with
Titian's great picture of S. Pietro Martire. The last
scene from the story of S. Filippo — Children Healed
by the touch of the Saint, is especially lovely in colour,
but the finest of the whole series is the Birth of the
Virgin, which was not completed till 15 14. Ghirlan-
dajo's well-known fresco of the subject in Santa Maria
Novella, was evidently fresh in the artist's mind when
he painted this. The same motives of the Mother
receiving visitors on her couch, and of the maid
washing the Child in a basin by the fire are repeated,
but there is more elegance in the women-forms,
greater ease and variety in their movements, and far
more charm in the whole composition. The Cupids
on the mantelpiece, and the graceful arabesques on
frieze and cornice are in the latest style of Renaissance
decoration. The general impression of the work
is of a singularly modern character. By this time,
Andrea's talents had already attracted the notice of
Ottaviano de' Medici, and in 15 15, when Leo X.
visited Florence, he was employed to construct a
temporory facade for the Duomo, adorned with
chiaroscuro statues and bas-reliefs, which excited
general admiration, and was pronounced by the Pope
to be as fine as marble. Meanwhile, both Andrea
and his friend and assistant, Franciabigio, had taken
up their residence in the Via della Sapienza, in a
house afterwards used as stables by the Tuscan
Grand Dukes, close to the Servi convent. It was a
favourite abode with young artists, and Leonardo's
friend, the sculptor Rustici, Jacopo Sansovino, and
many other well-known masters, were already lodging
there. Together they led a gay and joyous life, and

3i6 ANDREA DEL SARTO [1486.

Vasari describes the wonderful masques and suppers
held in the clubs which they formed among them-
selves. There was the famous Club of the Paiolo,
or Cauldron, which met at Rustici's house, where
dishes of the most elaborate kinds were provided
by each of the twelve members, and Andrea, on
one occasion, designed a temple in imitation of
the Baptistery, with mosaics of jelly, columns of
sausages, and choir and priests represented by
birds and hooded pigeons. Another evening he
recited a comic Greek poem, called the Battle of
the Mice, and said to have been composed by
Ottaviano de' Medici, who was himself a member
of the Club, which excited great merriment among
the company. No less popular were the meetings of
the Society of the Trowel, where the members
appeared in mason's clothes, and acted comedies and
plays, for which Andrea painted the scenery. A
great change had passed over Tuscan art and artists
since the days when Cennino wrote his Trattato,
The religious spirit which marked societies and
guilds of painters in those early times had entirely
disappeared, and the very character of the Florentines
seemed to have changed. Few sixteenth-century
masters approached art with the high seriousness of
Leonardo or the deep devotion of Fra Bartolommeo.

But, at least, Andrea was not idle. Hardly
had he finished the frescoes in the Court of the
Annunziata, than he set to work on the chiaroscuro
subjects from the life of the Baptist, in the cloisters
of the Scalzi or Bare-footed brothers in the Via
Larga. This series was to consist of twelve large
frescoes, for which he was to receive 56 lire^ and

1531] FRESCOES OF THE SCALZO 317

four smaller figures of Virtues, for which he was
to be paid 21 lire. Six of these were painted be-
tween 1 5 14 and 1 5 17, after which the series was
interrupted and never finished until 1526. Jt is
only within the last few years that the Scalzo
cloister has been roofed in and glazed, but in spite
of the damage which Andrea's frescoes have suffered
from exposure to weather and ill-judged restoration,
they reveal his wonderful powers in all their fulness.
The figures are admirably drawn and modelled, the
grouping and action are singularly fine, and the
ornamental framework of the subject is remarkably
decorative. Above all, the transparency of the
shadows and the luminous tones of the monochrome
produce an effect scarcely inferior to colour in
richness and variety. The second subject of the
Preaching of the Baptist, which the painter finished
in 1515, is an especially striking composition, in
which the earnest and impassioned gestures of the
Saint, and the eager faces of his listeners are given
with dramatic force. Several of the figures in this
and the other frescoes are, as Vasari remarks,
borrowed from Albert Durer's engraving, and bear
witness to the popularity which the Niirnberg
masters were fast gaining in Italy. But, even in the
early subjects, we see that fatal tendency to overload
the figures with draperies, which Andrea adopted
in imitation of Michelangelo, and which grew upon
him with the lapse of years, until it completely
destroyed the charm of his art.

This unfortunate practice is still more apparent in
Ae later frescoes of the Scalzo, as well as in the
lunette of the Madonna del Sacco, which Andrea

3i8 ANDREA DEL SARTO [1486-

painted in 1525, over a doorway in the cloisters of
the Servi convent. Here the grace of the composi-
tion and lovely harmonies of colour are sadly marred
by the voluminous folds of draperies which smother
the Virgin's form, and which seem to be introduced
solely in order to display the painter's skill in the
arrangement of the folds. Besides the fine panel of
the Head of Christ which still hangs in the Madonna's
Chapel of the Annunziata, Andrea painted a Dead
Christ, now in the Academy, on a staircase of the con-
vent, in return, it is said, for a bundle of votive candles.
This, however, was early in his career, about 15 12,
when he also executed two chiaroscuro frescoes on the
Parable of the Husbandmen in the Vineyard, in the
friar's kitchen garden. But the wall on which these
subjects were painted, fell in, early in the last
century, so that we can only form some idea of
these vigorous and animated compositions from old
engravings and a series of studies by Lucas van
Leyden, which are preserved in the Corsini Gallery.

Several of Andrea's best easel pictures also belong
to this period of his life. The earliest, and one of the
finest, is the Annunciation, which he painted in 15 12,
for his old patrons the Augustinians of the convent
outside the Porta San Gallo. In the timid action of
the shrinking Virgin, turning away with hand uplifted
in fear and wonder, we have a motive which the artist
often repeated, while the splendid Renaissance portico
in the background lends the subject a new and modern
character. The Dispute on the Trinity, an altar-piece
executed six years later for the same friars, and like
the former picture now in the Pitti, is another master-
piece of faultless drawing and glowing colour. Here

MADONNA AND CHILD (UFFlZl) — ANDREA DEL SARTO.

[ To face page 3 1 i

IS3I] HIS MARRIAGE 319

three saints, Laurence, Francis, and Peter Martyr
listen intently to the eloquent words in which the
venerable Father, St. Augustine, descants on the
divine mystery, and Sebastian and Magdalene kneel
at their feet. This work marks the culminating point
of Andrea's art, and like the famous Madonna delle
Arpie, was painted before his memorable journey to
France. This last-named picture, which takes its
name from the reliefs of harpies carved on the
pedestal of the Virgin's throne, was originally
executed for a Franciscan convent in the Via
Pentolini, and is now among the chief ornaments
of the Tribune of the Uffizi. It was painted early
in 1 5 17, a few months after the artist's marriage to
the beautiful widow, Lucrezia del Fede, whose
features we recognise in the Virgin's face. A striped
cloth rests on her brown hair and a yellow shawl
is folded round her shoulders. The laughing Child
clings lovingly to his Mother's neck, and two fair
boy-angels play with the skirts of her blue robe.
At the foot of the throne St. Francis stands with
a crucifix in his hand, and a youthful St. John is
seen in the act of writing his Gospel. Andrea never
excelled this composition which, in simple grace and
majesty, is unique among his works, and belongs to
the happiest moment of his life.

The story of Andrea's marriage is familiar to us in
the pages of Vasari, who was at one time the artist's
pupil, and who in his hatred of his master's wife has
painted her in the blackest colours. But although his
language may be exaggerated, the main facts of the
case are probably true, and have never been refuted.
This handsome woman whose face recurs in almost

320 ANDREA DEL SARTO [i486.

every Virgin and Saint of Andrea's pictures, who sat
to him for the youthful king in the fresco of the
Magi, and appears again as one of the chief figures in
the Birth of the Virgin, whom we see by turn as the
Madonna on her throne, as the kneeling Magdalene
of the Disputa, or the Charity of the Scalzo, was the
wife of Carlo di Recanati, a hatter in the Via S. Gallo.
Andrea was fascinated by her charms in the early
days when he painted his first frescoes in the An-
nunziata, and after the death of her husband on the
17th of September, 15 16, took her for his wife. But
the fulfilment of his long-cherished desire brought
him little peace. Lucrezia's violent and overbearing
temper drove away his favourite scholar, Pontormo,
who was alive when Vasari wrote, and several of his
best apprentices, while her vanity excited his jealousy
and her extravagance involved him in constant diffi-
culties. He soon found that he had not only his
wife, but her father and sisters, to keep, and in
order to provide for their needs, was compelled to
lead a life of incessant toil, and to neglect his own
parents, who, if we are to believe Vasari's tale, died
in miserable poverty. It is certain, however, that
Lucrezia herself possessed some fortune, and before
Andrea went to France he gave her father a receipt
for her dowry of 1 50 florins, and deposited a sum of
money for her benefit in the bank of S. Maria Nuova.
In May, 15 18, he accepted a pressing invitation
from the French king, who had been greatly im-
pressed by two of his works, the Holy Family
of the Louvre and a Piet^, now at Vienna, which
had been sent to France by Giovanni Battista della
Palla. Andrea found a generous patron in Francis I.,

1531] VISIT TO FRANCE 321

for whom he painted the well-known group of
Charity and her Children, and a portrait of the infant
Dauphin, for which he received 300 gold crowns.

But while the master was enjoying the change
from the narrowness and poverty of his Florentine
life to the splendour of the French court, his wife
became impatient for his return — " being more
anxious," remarks Vasari, "to profit by his gains
than to see him again." Her entreaties touched his
heart so deeply, that he obtained leave from the
king for two months, early in 15 19, to go to
Florence, and bring back his wife. But once
at home again, Andrea forgot his promises in
the joy of Lucrezia's company. He lavished pre-
sents upon his wife and her sisters, and spent
the money which Francis I. had given him to pur-
chase works of art for his palace at Fontainebleau,
in buying a plot of land and building a house
near the Annunziata. Whether Vasari's story is
true or not, it is certain that Andrea never returned
to France, and threw away the prospect of a great
and honourable career in that country. But he
found plenty of employment in Florence, where,
now that Fra Bartolommeo was dead, he had no
one left to be his rival. He soon resumed his work
at the Scalzo cloister, and designed the beautiful
Charity, in which he repeated his former composition
in the Louvre, and once more painted Lucrezia's
portrait. In 1521, his old friend Ottaviano de'
Medici, employed him to decorate Leo the Tenth's
villa at Poggio a Caiano, where his fresco of envoys
in Florentine costume bringing a motley collection
of giraffes, parrots, and monkeys a.s tribute to Caesar

X

322 ANDREA DEL SARTO (14S6.

may still be seen in the great hall. This bright and
animated, but curiously modern composition, was left
unfinished, owing to the Pope's death, and only com-
pleted sixty years later by the painter Allori. Andrea
then returned to his work in the Scalzo cloisters, and
continued the series at intervals, until it was com-
pleted in 1526.

In 1523, Andrea was one of the masters employed
by Piero Francesco Borgherini to decorate the furniture
of a chamber in his palace in the Borgo Apostoli, for
the marriage of his son Francesco with Margherita
Acciaiuoli. The two panels of the story of Joseph
which formed Andrea's share in the work, are painted
with his usual care and skill, and their rich colour
and fine atmosphere produce a highly decorative
effect. Granacci, Bacchiacca, and Andrea's own pupil
Pontormo were associated with him in this task, and
by their care the richly-carved bedstead, chests, and
arm-chairs of walnut were all adorned with paintings of
the same story. During the siege of Florence in 1 529,
Francis the First's agent, Giovanni Battista della Palla,
obtained leave from the Signoria to strip the beautiful
chamber of its treasures, and send them to his master.
But when he entered the Borgherini Palace, Margherita
herself met him on the threshold and bade him begone,
telling him that the furniture he wished to carry off
had been ordered by her husband's father for her
wedding, and that rather than part from a single stick,
she would shed the last drop of her blood. The terri-
fied agent retired in dismay, and was soon afterwards
thrown into prison and put to death as a traitor.
" Thus," writes Vasari, " did this brave woman, by her
heroic courage and firmness, keep these treasures of

I53I] LAST SUPPER 323

art to adorn her home, and show herself to be a
worthy daughter of this noble and ancient race."

In 1524, a sudden outbreak of the plague drove
Andrea and his family to take refuge in the convent
of S. Piero in Val Mugello, where the abbess and
nuns entertained him hospitably, and he painted the
well-known Deposition in the Pitti, as well as two
smaller pictures which have disappeared. The admir-
able sketch of the Dead Christ in red chalk is in the
Louvre, while a study of the Magdalene's head is in
the Uffizi collection. But masterly as is the drawing
and delicate the colour of this fine work, it falls far
short of Perugino or Fra Bartolommeo's Depositions
in depth and tenderness of feeling. We are conscious
of the same lack of elevation and pathos in the Last
Supper, which Andrea painted in the refectory of the
Vallombrosan monks at the convent of S. Salvi,
outside the Porta della Croce. The commission for
this fresco had been given to the painter in June, 15 19,
immediately aftei' his return from France, but the
work was only completed seven years later. Andrea
bestowed infinite pains on this fresco, "painting,"
Vasari tells us, "but little at a time, as he felt in-
clined, and making every part as perfect as he could."
If he failed to give the subject Leonardo's ideal
grandeur and solemnity, and his Last Supper cannot
compare with the Cenacolo at Milan, he has at least
succeeded in producing a more pleasing and beautiful
representation of the scene than any other Tuscan
master. It is said that during the siege of Florence,
when the invading army destroyed all the convents
and hospitals without the walls, a troop of soldiers
pulled down the bell-tower of S. Salvi, and were

324 ANDREA DEL SARTO [i486-

about to attack the convent, but when they entered
the refectory they paused awe-struck before Andrea's
painting, and retired without doing any further
damage.

As years went by, Andrea's style became more and
more artificial. He repeated his old compositions,
and painted one picture after another with the same
marvellous facility, in the same mannered style. In
the Virgin-Saints at Pisa, in the Assumptions and
Holy Family of the Pitti, we see the same heavy
masses of draperies, the same fair women with
soulless faces and insipid expression. Even his
drawing became academic and conventional, and
his once soft and brilliant colouring gave place to
monotonous greyness. Here and there we find a
touch of the old grace, as, for instance, in the fascinat-
ing babies from the large altar-piece which he painted,
in 1528, for the hermitage on the heights of Vallom-
brosa, or the delightful children wearing the white
hoods of the S. Jacopo's Penitents on the processional
banner of the Confraternity in the Uffizi.

One phase of art in which Andrea del Sarto ex-
celled was that of portrait-painting. The refined and
thoughtful head of the Sculptor in the National
Gallery is an excellent example of his direct and
simple interpretation of character, while in the suc-
cessive portraits of himself and his wife he has left'
us a pathetic record of his own history. Again and
again he has painted this beautiful Lucrezia whom he
loved too well for his own happiness. In the UflEizi
picture we see her clad in a blue robe, holding an
open volume of Petrarch's Sonnets in her hand ; in
the later portrait at Berlin she wears a more matronly

I53I] PORTRAITS 325

air in her striped bodice with yellow sleeves, with the
white handkerchief folded over the thick coils of
chestnut hair. And he has painted himself too,
from the early days when he was a graceful youth
with dark eyes, sensitive lips, and long brown curls,
down to the last year of his life, when he had grown
stout and middle-aged, and the coarsened features
and listless expression tell a melancholy tale of
deterioration of character. A wonderful example of
his technical skill is still to be seen in the copy of
Raphael's great portrait of Leo X. and his Cardinals,
which he painted, in 1524, for Ottaviano de' Medici.
Pope Clement VII. had desired his kinsman to send
this famous Raphael, which hung over a doorway of
the Medici palace, as a present to the Duke of
Mantua, upon which Ottaviano, unwilling to part
from so great a treasure, employed Andrea to copy
the picture, and sent his work to Mantua in the place
of the original. So admirable was Andrea's copy,
that even Giulio Romano, who had himself helped
Raphael in painting the Pope's portrait, was com-
pletely deceived, until Vasari showed him Andrea's
monogram with the interlaced initials on the edge of
thejjanel.

n spite, however, of his untiring industry, and of
the great reputation which he enjoyed in Florence,
Andrea del Sarto never attained the position to which
his rare talents entitled him. During the siege of
Florence he suffered many privations, and was glad
to accept a commission from the Signory to paint the
effigies of some rebels who had been huiAg as traitors
on the walls of the Podestk palace. But being
ashamed of the task, and fearing that he might

326

ANDREA DEL SARTO

[1486-

acquire the name of " Andrea of the Gallows," which
had been applied of old to Andrea del Castagno, he
announced that one of his apprentices would fulfil the
order, which he really executed himself, going back-
wards and forwards by night, and hiding behind a
hoarding when he was at work.

All through his later years, Vasari tells us, the
painter never ceased to look back with regret at the
time which he had spent in France, and made more
than one effort to recover the favour of King Francis.
The picture of the youthful Baptist, in thxi Pitti, was
intended to be sent as a gift to propitiate that
monarch, but was eventually bought by Ottaviano
de' Medici. In 1529, however, Giovanni Battista della
Palla once more commissioned Andrea to paint a
picture for his master. This time the artist, anxious
to recover his old patron's good graces, exerted
himself to the utmost, and produced his Sacrifice of
Isaac, a picture far finer in design and expression
than any work of his later years. But the siege inter-
vened, Giovanni Battista della Palla died in prison,
and the picture was never sent to France. After
Andrea's death it was sold by his widow to Filippo
Strozzi, and, after changing hands repeatedly, was
placed in the Tribune of the Ufifizi, in 1633. Seven
years afterwards it was exchanged for Correggio's
Riposo, and passed with the chief treasures of the
Duke of Modena's collection into the Dresden gallery.
The smaller replica of the picture at Madrid was
painted for Paolo di Terrarossa, who, filled with
admiration for the original design which he saw in
Andrea's studio, anxiously inquired the price of a
small copy, and gladly gave the artist the trifling

I53I] DIES OF THE PLAGUE 327

sum for which he asked — ^^ una miserial^ as Vasari
says !

When Florence was taken by the Spaniards, the
plague broke out in many parts of the city, and Andrea
del Sarto was one of its first victims. He breathed his
last on the 22nd of January, 1531, at the age of forty-
five, deserted even by his wife, who fled in terror from
the house and left him to die alone. Yet his devotion
to her had never altered, and in a will which he made
four years before his death, he left all his property to
his dear wife, " la mia diletta dominal^ and even remem-
bered his step-daughter Maria. Lucrezia survived
her husband forty years, and died in January, 1571.
One day in the winter of 1570, when the artist
Jacopo da Empoli was copying Andrea del Sarto's
Birth of the Virgin in the court of the Annunziata,
an old woman of eighty stopped to speak to him on
her way to mass, and pointing to the figure of the
handsome young matron in the picture, told him that
this was her portrait, and that she herself was Lucrezia
del Fede, the widow of the artist who painted the fresco.
She had vexed him in his life-time and abandoned
him on his death-bed, but it was still her greatest
pride to remember that she had been the wife of
the famous master — ^^ Andrea senza erroriy

Chief Works:—

Florence, — Accademia : 61. Two Child -Angels.

75. Fresco — Dead Christ.

76. Four Saints.

77. Predella. Legends of Saints.
It Pitti', 58. Deposition.

66. Portrait of the Painter.
81. Holy Family.

87. Joseph's Dream.

88. Joseph in Egypt.

328

ANDREA DEL SARTO

[1486-1531

Chief Works {continued)—

Florence, — Pitti: 124. Annunciation.

172. Dispute on the Trinity.
184. Portrait of the Painter,
191. Assumption.
225. Assumption.
272. The Baptist.
^ Uffizi: 93. Noli me Tangere.

188. Portrait of Lucrezia.
280. Portrait of the Painter.
1 1 12. Madonna delle Arpie.
1 1 76. Portrait of the Painter.
1230. Portrait of Lady.
1254. St. James with Two Children.
„ Chiostro dello Scalzo: Frescoes — Eight Scenes from

the Life of St. John Baptist. Four Virtues.
^ S. S. Annunziata^ Court: Frescoes — Five Scenes

from the Life of S. Filippo Benizzi, Adoration
of Magi, Birth of the Virgin. Chapel: Head of
Christ. Cloisters : Fresco — Madonna del Sacco.
„ S. Salvia Refectory : Fresco — Last Supper.

Poggio a Caiano : Fresco — Caesar receiving Tribute.
Berlin. — Gallery: 240. Portrait of Lucrezia.

246. Madonna and Child with Saints.
Dresden. — Gallery: 76. Marriage of St. Katherine.

*j*j. Sacrifice of Isaac.
London. — National Gallery : d^^o. Portrait of a Sculptor.

,, Hertford House : Madonna and Child with Angels.
Madrid. — Gallery: 383. Portrait of Lucrezia.
385. Holy Family.
387. Sacrifice of Isaac
Paris — Louvre: 15 14. Charity.

1 5 15. Holy Family.
Vienna. — Gallery: 39. Pieti. 42. Tobias,
Rotne.—Borghese Villa: 336. Madonna and Child with St.

John.
St Petersburg. — 24. Holy Family.

XXVI

FRANCIABIGIO

1482-1525

Francesco di' Cristoforo, commonly called by his
surname of Francia bigioy was the son of a Milanese
weaver living in Florence, where he was born in 1482.
He studied painting under Albertinelli, but early
attached himself to Andrea del Sarto, whom he
first met in the Pope's hall, copying the cartoons
of Leonardo and Michelangelo, and whose friend
and assistant he became. In 1513, he painted the
fresco of the Marriage of the Virgin, in the court
of the Annunziata, but was so indignant with the
Servi brothers for uncovering the work before it
was finished, that he gave the head of the Virgin
a blow with a hammer, and if the friars had not
rushed up and seized his hands, would have destroyed
the whole painting. Traces of the damage wrought
by the angry master's hammer are still to be seen
in this fresco, which, with its bright colouring and
graceful forms, is not unworthy of the place which
it occupies among Andrea's works. When Andrea
went to France, Franciabigio was invited to continue
his series in the cloisters of the Scalzo, and painted

829

330

FRANCIABIGIO

[1482-

two subjects, the Baptist taking leave of his parents,
and his meeting with Christ in the desert. Both in
these frescoes and in his easel-pictures, this artist
imitates Andrea's manner closely, and follows his
practice of borrowing figures from Albert Durer's
engravings. This is especially the case in an early
panel, intended for the front of a cassone^ now in
the Uffizi, in which Hercules is represented standing
on a pedestal under a portico, and groups of soldiers
and scholars are introduced.

Like his more illustrious friend, Franciabigio was
an admirable portrait-painter, and several of his
male heads have at different times been ascribed
to Andrea and even to Raphael. A young knight
of Malta, by his hand, is in the National Gallery,
and a portrait of Pier Francesco de' Medici's steward
may be seen at Windsor Castle, while several other
good examples are in other private collections in
England. Franciabigio assisted Ridolfo Ghirlandajo
to design triumphal cars and arches for the wed-
ding of Duke Lorenzo, in 15 18, and painted a
fresco of the Triumph of Cicero at Pope Leo's villa
of Poggio a Caiano. In 1523, he finished another
cassone picture on the story of David and Bathsheba,
which is now at Dresden, and died in the following
year, at the age of forty -two. Vasari describes him
as a very gentle and amiable man, who took warning
from his friend Andrea's experiences, and always
refused to marry, saying that a wife only brings
sorrow and anxieties. According to the old saying,
" Chi ha moglicy ha pene e doglie"

One of Franciabigio's best pupils was Francesco
Ubertini, surnamed Bacchiacca, who began by learning

IS25] BACCHIACCA 331

of Perugino, when he was in Florence, but soon joined
Franciabigio, and followed in the steps of Andrea
del Sarto, whose smooth colouring and grey flesh-tones
he adopted. He painted many predelle and cassoniy
and six panels with different scenes from the story
of Joseph, which were his share towards the decoration
of the Borgherini chamber, are now in the Borghese
Villa in Rome, while two others are in the National
Gallery. Among his other works are an Adam and
Eve in Signor Frizzoni's possession at Milan, a
large Madonna in Sir Francis Cook's collection, and
a small panel of Moses striking the Rock, containing
no less than forty figures, and birds and beasts of
every description, in the Giovanelli Palace at Venice.
Bacchiacca was frequently employed by the Medici
princes to adorn triumphal arches and decorate halls
on festive occasions, and after Franciabigio's death,
paid a visit to Rome, where he became intimate with
Giulio Romano and Benvenuto Cellini, who mentions
him in his autobiography.

Two other artists were employed in the
Annunziata with Andrea del Sarto. One of these
was Giovanbattista, known as il Rosso, who after-
wards entered the service of Francis I., and went to
France, where he was called le Maitre Roux^ and
died in 1541. He painted a fresco of the Assump-
tion in the court of the Servite church, but is better
known by his graceful little panel of the rival songs
of the Muses and Pierides on Parnassus, in the
Louvre. The other master employed by the Servi
friars was Jacopo Carrucci, commonly known as
Pontormo, from his native village near Empoli, who
remained during many years the favourite scholar

33« FRANCIABIGIO [1482-

and assistant of Andrea. His fresco of the Visitation
in the Annunziata court (1516) comes nearer to
Andrea's work in grace and technical skill than
any other of the series, while his lunette of Diana
and Pomona in the villa at Poggio a Caiano, is both
gay in colour and charming in fancy. He was
among the artists employed on the nuptial chamber
of the Borgherini Palace, and two panels of the story
of Joseph, which he executed there, are at Panshanger,
while a third is in the National Gallery. His portraits
of the Medici princes, at Florence, his Gem-Cutter,
in the Louvre, his bust of Andrea del Sarto, at
Berlin, and his Florentine Lady, at Frankfort, are
dignified and attractive works, marked by a refine-
ment and penetration which make us regret that
he ever attempted more ambitious subjects. Un-
fortunately, this graceful and imaginative artist was
carried away by his admiration for Michelangelo,
and wasted time and powers in futile endeavours
to rival that master's colossal nudes. His Venus
and Cupid, in the Uffizi, his Holy Family, of 1543,
in the Louvre, his Martyrdom of Forty Saints, in
the Pitti, only show the folly of his ambition and
the impotence of his efforts. He died in 1556,
conscious of his failure to realise his ideal, and
disappointed in his hopes of fame, and was buried,
by his last wish, in the court of the Annunziata,
under the Visitation, which he felt in the end was
his best work.

Pontormo's merits and defects were shared by
his favourite scholar, Angelo di Cosimo, surnamed
Bronzino, who was also the intimate friend of Vasari.
Bronzino*s weakness is apparent when he tries to

I52S1 BRONZING 333

paint imaginative works, and vies with Michelangelo
in designing nudes on a large scale. His Allegory,
in the National Gallery, and his Christ in Hades,
are tasteless conceptions, devoid alike of spiritual
meaning and beauty. But many of his portraits
are admirable works of art. Few later masters
have surpassed his courtly representations of
Eleonora of Toledo, and Lucrezia Panciatichi, of
Duke Cosimo and Don Ferdinand, at Florence, or
the full length portrait of the handsome boy in
red and black, which long went by the name of
Pontormo, in the National Gallery.

Chief Works —
Franciabigio :

Florence. — Pitti: 43. Portrait of Man.

427. Allegory of Calumny.
t» Uffizi: 92. Madonna and Child with St. John.

1223. Temple of Hercules.

1224. Holy Family.

1264. Madonna and Child with Saints.
99 Annunziatay Court: Fresco — Marriage of the

Virgin.
Chiostro dello Scalzo: Frescoes — The life of St.
John Baptist.
9, Im Calza : Fresco — Last Supper.
» PoSgio a Caiano : Fresco — Triumph of Caesar.
Rome. — Borghese Villa: 177. Marriage of St. Katherine.
,, 458. Holy Family.

„ Corsini Gallery : no. Madonna and Child.
Turin. — Gallery: 112. Annunciation,
Berlin. — Gallery: 235, 245, 245 a. Portraits.
Dresden.— Gallery : 75. Story of Bathsheba.
London. — National Gallery. 1035. Portrait of Knight of
Malta.
„ Mr. Benson : Portrait of an Artist.

„ Earl of Northbrook : Portrait of Youth.
„ Earl of Yarborough : Portrait of a Jeweller.
,» Windsor Castle : Portrait of Youth,

334 FRANCIABIGIO [1482

Chief Works {continued) —

FRANCIABIGIO :

Vienna. — Gallery: 46, Holy Family,

,, Lichtenstein Gallery : Portrait of Youth.

Rosso :

Florence. — Pitti: 113. Three Fates.

237. Madonna and Child with Saints.
„ Uffizi: 1 24 1. Angel playing Guitar.

„ Bargello: Fresco — ^Justice.

Annunziata, Court: Fresco — Assumption.
„ S. Lorenzo : Marriage of Virgin.

Siena — Gallery. Sala XI. : 19. Portrait of Youth,
Venice. — Accademia: ^6. Portrait of Man.
Paris. — Louvre ■ 1485. Piet^.

„ i486. The Muses and Pierides.

Bacchiacca :

Florence. — Pitti: 102. The Magdalene.

,, Vjffizi: 87. Deposition.

Bergamo. — Morelli Gallery : 62. Death of Abel.
Milan. — Signor Crespi: Adoration of Magi.

„ Signor Frizzoni: Adam and Eve.
Rome.—Borghese Villa: 425-463. Story of Joseph.

338. Madonna and Child.
Venice. — Seminario: 23. Madonna and Child.

,, Palazzo Giovanelli: Moses striking the Rock.
Berlin. — Gallery: 267. Baptism.
Dresden. — Gallery 80. Legend of Saint.
London.^National Gallery : 12 18, 1219. Story of Joseph.

1304. Marcus Curtius.
„ Mr. Butler: Portrait of Youth.
Oxford.— Christ Church : 55. Noli me Tangere.

57. Resurrection of Lazarus.
Munich. — Pinacothek: 1077. Madonna and Child with St.
John.

PONTORMO :

Florence. — Accademia: 183. Piet^.

190. Christ at Emmaus.
Pitti. 149. Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici
182. Martyrdom of Forty Saints.

IS25J WORKS OF PONTORMO 335

Chief Works {continued) —

PONTORMO :

Florence. — Pitti: 233. St. Anthony.

249. Portrait of Man.

379. Adoration of Magi,

>» Uffizi: 1 177. Madonna and Child with Saints.

1 187. Martyrdom of S. Maurizio.

1 198. Birth of St. John Baptist.

1220. Portrait of Man.

1267. Cosimo de' Medici.

1270. Cosimo I., Duks of Florence.

5, San Marco: Room 38. Portrait of Cosimo de

Medici.

;, Annunziata, Court: Fresco — Visitation.

„ Chapel of St. Luke: Madonna and Child with

Saints.

„ S. Felicith: Deposition, Annunciation.

„ Corsini Gallery : 141, 185. Holy Family.

,» Certosa di Val cPEma: Fresco — Christ before

Pilate.

»» Poggio a Caiano: Fresco — Diana, Pomona, and

others.

Bergamo. — Morelli Gallery: 59. Portrait of Baccio Band-

inelli.

Rome. — Barberini Palace ; 83. Pygmalion and Galatea.

„ Borghese Villa: 173. Tobias.

408. Portrait of a Cardinal,

„ Corsini Gallery : 577. Portrait of Man.

Turin. — Gallery: 122. Portrait of Lady.

Berlin. — Gallety • 239. Portrait (rf Andrea del Sarto.

„ Frankfort Gallery: 14A. Portrait of Lady with

Dog.

Genoa. — Palazzo Brignole-Sala : Portrait of Youth.

London. — National Gallery : 1131. Joseph in Egypt.

„ Mr. Mond: A Conversation.

„ Panshanger , Story of Joseph.

,} Portrait of Youth.

Paris. — Louvre: 1240. Holy Family.

1 24 1. Portrait of Gem -Engraver.
Bronzing :

Florence. — Pitti: 39. Holy Family.

403. Portrait of Cosimo L

336

FRANCIABIGIO

[1482-1525

Chief Works [continued)—
Bronzing :

Florence,— Ufflzi: 154. Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi.

158. Descent from Cross.

159. Portrait of Bartolommeo Panciatichi.
172. Portraits of Eleanora da Toledo and

Don Garzia.
198. Portrait of Lady.
I155. Portrait of Don Garzia.
1164 and 1273. Portraits of Maria de' MedicL
1 166. Man in Armour.
1209. Dead Christ.
1 2 II . Allegory of Happiness.
1266. Portrait of Sculptor.

1 27 1. Christ in Hades.

1272. Portrait of Ferdinand de' Medici.
Bergamo. — Morelli Gallery : 65. Portrait of Alessandro de*

Medici.
Milan. — Brera: 565. Portrait of Andrea Doria.
Rome. — Borghese Villa : 444. St. John Baptist.
„ Colonna Palace : Venus, Holy Family.
„ Corsini Palace : Portrait of Stefano Colonna.
„ Doria Palace : Portrait of a Doria Prince.
Berlin. — Gallery : 338, 338A. Portraits of the Medici Family.
London. — National Gallery : 649. Portrait of Boy.

651. Allegory.

1523. Portrait of Piero de'
Medici.
Oxford. — University Galleries: 30. Portrait of Don Garzia.
Paris. — Louvre: 1183. Noli me Tangere.

1 184. Portrait of Sculptor.
Vienna. — Gallery: 49. Holy Family.

44. Portrait of Man in Fur Coat.
Turin, — Gallery : 128, Portrait of Giovanni delle
Band Nere*

XXVII

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI

1475-1564

, The last great Florentine master of the Renaissance
was Michelangelo. His mighty personality towers
like some Titan of old above his contemporaries,
and the grandeur of his genius imposes itself upon
the whole of the sixteenth century. His long life
extends over a memorable period in the history of
Florence. He grew up in the days of her brightest
prosperity, when the State was feared and respected,
and all the arts flourished under the rule of the
Magnificent Lorenzo, and after witnessing Savon-
arola's revival, and the successive revolutions of the
next thirty years, he lived to mourn over the downfall
of his country and the final loss of her liberties.

The works of Michelangelo represent the culminat-
ing point of the art of the Italian Renaissance. They
are the fruit of three centuries of continual effort and
research, of classical learning and direct study of
nature. In them the problems of form and move-
ment which had occupied Florentine masters since
the days of Giotto, find their highest development
The influence of pagan art and the teaching of

Y 837

338 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i47S.

Platonist scholars formed the great master's ideas
and moulded his genius, but he clung to the faith
of past ages with unshaken trust, and inherited the
creed of Dante and the Christian sentiment of early
Tuscan sculptors. So, while he became the creator
of a new and original style, he held fast to the old
traditions, and in his art we find the seriousness and
devotion of the Middle Ages, widened and deepened
by the knowledge of Plato. " Because the beauty ot
the world is fragile and deceitful," he writes, " I seek
to attain the eternal and universal Beauty." Early in
life the study of the antiques in the Medici Palace
inspired him with a profound sense of the beauty and
wonder of the human form, and he realised what such
artists as Antonio Pollaiuolo and Luca Signorelli
had dimly felt before, that the most complete render-
ing of life and movement can only be attained by
means of the nude. While Leonardo loved Nature
in all its varied forms, and lingered tenderly over the
smallest details of rock and flower, Michelangelo's
thoughts were wholly centred on the study of man.
" God," as he says in one of his sonnets, " has nowhere
revealed Himself more fully than in the sublime
beauty of the human form." From the first, the
great master saw and understood the full signifi-
cance of the body, its value for decorative purposes,
and as a means of expressing spiritual and intel-
lectual thought. Again, while Leonardo's art owes
its serenity and repose to his clear and lucid intellect,
Michelangelo's creations all bear the stamp of his
restless and struggling nature. The most subjective
of artists, every picture he painted and every statue
he carved tell the secrets of his deep thinking, passion-

15^4] ARCHITECT, SCULPTOR, AND PAINTER 339

ately-striving, much-suffering soul. No artist felt the
joy and glory of life more keenly, no one was more
oppressed with a sense of its weariness and misery.
His own life was one long tragedy of broken hopes
and frustrated purposes. But from boyhood to old
age his mighty powers were devoted with unswerving
constancy to the service of art, and in spite of
hindrances and disappointments he fulfilled the end
of life, and revealed himself in a series of great and
heroic conceptions.

Like Leonardo, Michelangelo was a many-sided
genius, and three supreme conceptions — the frescoes
of the Sistine Chapel, the Medici tombs, and the
Dome of St. Peter — remain to prove his skill as
architect, sculptor, and painter. But, unlike his
great rival, sculpture and not painting was the form
in which he preferred to express his thoughts.
Painting, as he told Pope Julius II., was not his
trade, and in all his letters from Rome, he signed
himself "Michelangelo, scultorel^ as if to emphasise
this statement. "Let the whole world know I
am not a painter," are the words with which
he ends one of his sonnets, in which the same
conviction is expressed. His paintings tell the
same story. All their finest qualities, their masterly
design, vigorous modelling, and admirable relief,
betray the sculptor's hand, and show the same
passion for plastic beauty. In later years his en-
thusiasm for science and marvellous knowledge of
anatomy led him to crowd his frescoes with exagger-
ated gestures and distorted attitudes. He neglected
beauty for strength, and allowed force to degenerate
into brutality. But in spite of these obvious defects,

340 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i47S-

and of the baneful influence which his example
exerted on contemporary art, Michelangelo has left
the world a vision of radiant and glorious humanity
ivhich, alone among the creations of modern times, is
worthy to rank with the immortal works of Greek
sculpture.

On the 6th of March, 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti
was born at the castle of Caprese, in the mountains
above Arezzo, between the valleys of the Arno and
the Tiber, close to St. Francis's favourite sanctuary
of La Vernia, which Dante describes as "Quel
crudo sasso intra Tevere ed Arno." His father,
Lodovico, belonged to a good old Florentine family
which claimed descent from the Count of Canossa,
and held the honourable office of Podestk of Caprese
at the time of his son's birth. When his term of
office expired, he returned to Florence with his young
wife, Francesca, and his infant son was left to be
nursed in the family of a stone-cutter of Settignano.
" Giorgio," the great master once said to Vasari, " if
there is anything good in me, it comes from the pure
air of your Arezzo hills where I was born, and
perhaps also from the milk of my nurse with which I
sucked in the chisels and hammers with which I used
to carve my figures."

As soon as he was old enough to leave his nurse
the boy was sent to school in Florence, but showed
little taste for learning and spent his time in drawing.
In vain his father, who looked on painting as an
inferior profession, punished him for neglecting his
studies. One day, Francesco Granacci, a young
apprentice in Ghirlandajo's shop, with whom he had
made friends, showed his master a drawing which the

1564] EARLY YEARS 341

boy had made in imitation of a print by Schongauer,
of St. Anthony surrounded by beasts and fishes,
carefully copied from those which he saw in the
market. The painter, seeing the boy's evident talent
for drawing, offered to take him into his shop,
and on the ist of April, 1488, Michelangelo was
apprenticed to Ghirlandajo for a period of three
years. His powers of draught manship were the
surprise and envy of his comrades, and one day when
he made a sketch of his master and his assistants
at work on the scaffolding in the choir of Santa
Maria Novella, Ghirlandajo exclaimed — "The boy
knows more than I do!" Even then his irritable
temper and sharp speeches often excited the wrath
of his companions, and one day when the young
artists were copying Masaccio's frescoes in the
Brancacci Chapel, Piero Torrigiano struck him a
blow on the nose, and, as he told Cellini, left a
mark which the great master carried with him to the
grave. But Michelangelo did not remain long in
Ghirlandajo's shop. In 1489, when he and Granacci
were drawing antiques in the Medici gardens, Lorenzo
saw the boy copying a marble Faun, and was so
much struck at the skill with which he knocked a
tooth out of the upper jaw of the head, to make it
appear older, that he took him into his own house-
hold. For the next two years Michelangelo lived in
the palace of Via Larga, dining at the same table as
the Magnifico's children, and treated as one of the
family. There he met the best painters and foremost
scholars of the day, and saw the finest art of past and
present times — the paintings of Pollaiuolo and Botti-
celli, and the gems and intaglios of Lorenzo's collec-

342 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i47S-

tion. He was one of the joyous company who met
on summer evenings in the Piazza where Pulci recited
his verses, or Tuscan maidens sang Lorenzo's songs.
And he accompanied Poliziano and Pico to hear
Savonarola's sermons, and was as deeply moved as
they were by the Frate's fiery eloquence. His own
brother Leonardo joined the Dominican Order, and
became a friar of San Marco, where he died in 1510.
Michelangelo himself, writing from Rome in 1497,
thanks another of his brothers for telling him of the
acts of the saintly Fra Girolamo, of whom all Rome is
talking. Here, indeed, he adds, people call him a
pestilent heretic, but only let him come and preach in
Rome, and they will canonise him ere long ! Years
afterwards we find Michelangelo still counting himself
among his followers, and saying that he must em-
ploy a certain artist, or his friends, the piagnoni^ will
never forgive him. During his residence in the
Medici Palace the young artist carved a bas-relief of
the Battle of the Centaurs, at Polizianc's suggestion,
on a block of marble given him by Lorenzo, who
praised his work warmly, and presented him with a
violet mantle and a monthly allowance of five florins.
This fine composition which has all the fire and
originality of youthful genius, was kept by Michel-
angelo to his dying day, and is still in the Casa
Buonarroti, together with an early Madonna in
Donatello's style. But these happy days ended all
too soon.

In April, 1492, Lorenzo de' Medici died at Careggi,
and Michelangelo, deprived of his powerful patron,
returned to his father's house, and devoted himself
to the study of anatomy. The Prior of S. Spirito

IS64] THE SLEEPING CUPID 343

allowed him to dissect dead bodies in a room of
his convent, and in return for his kindness, Michel-
angelo carved a life-size crucifix in wood for his
chapel. Before long, however, Lorenzo's son, Piero,
sent for the sculptor one winter's day, to model a
colossal snow-man, and he once more took up his
abode in his old quarters. Little as Piero resembled
his father, he was glad to avail himself of Michel-
angelo's advice in the purchase of cameos and gems,
and was fond of saying that he valued him almost
as highly as one of his Spanish grooms, who could
run as fast as a horse at full gallop. Whether this
patronage was not to Michelangelo's taste, or whether
he foresaw the storm that was about to burst, he left
Florence a few weeks before Piero was expelled, and
spent some time in Bologna, where he carved the
lovely kneeling angel on Niccolo Pisano's Area di
S. Domenico. There he saw Jacopo della Quercia's
bas-reliefs of the story of Creation, on the doors of
San Petronio, and was profoundly impressed, as the
Sistine frescoes show, by their grand and massive
types.

On his return to Florence, he found a new patron
in Botticelli's friend, Lorenzo di Pierofrancesco de*
Medici, at whose suggestion he made a sleeping
Cupid, which was taken to Rome by a dealer, and
sold as an antique to the Cardinal di San Giorgio.
The dealer's fraud was discovered, but Michelangelo's
Cupid became famous, and after passing from the
palace of Urbino into the hands of Caesar Borgia,
eventually found a home in Isabella d'Este's Studio
at Mantua. Michelangelo himself received an invita-
tion from the Cardinal di San Giorgio, and spent the

344 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i47S-

next five years in Rome, working for different patrons.
The admirable statue of Bacchus in the Bargello, and
the beautiful Piet^ in St. Peter's in Rome, both belong
to this period, and were executed in the last years of
the century, the one for the banker Jacopo Gallo, the
other for the Abbot of St. Denis, the French envoy
at the papal court. The Madonna of Bruges, another
marble group, which combines the sweetness and
devotion of the early Tuscan sculptors with Michel-
angelo's knowledge of form and masterly execution,
and the unfinished circular bas-reliefs of Madonnas in
the Bargello, and at Burlington House, were probably
carved soon after the artist's return to Florence in

1501-

While Michelangelo was engaged on these works,
his father and brother found themselves in great
difficulties, and their importunate appeals were the
chief cause of his return from Rome. On the expul-
sion of the Medici, Lodovico had lost a small post
in the customs, which had been given him by Lorenzo,
and his idle and incapable sons were always com-
plaining of poverty, and writing begging letters to
their absent brother. The more he gave, the more
they demanded, and their ingratitude and rapacity
excited Michelangelo's bitterest indignation. But
they always turned to him for help and advice,
and nothing is more remarkable in the great man's
character than his constant affection for these worth-
less relatives. His correspondence with his father
and brother begins in 1497, and gives us many
interesting details regarding his habits and peculiari-
ties. Lodovico repeatedly begs him to consider his
health, and not to live in so penurious a manner.

I564J THE STATUE OF DAVID 345

Although he was always liberal to others, Michel-
angelo's own habits were singularly frugal. " Ascanio,"
he often remarked to his friend and biographer Condivi,
" rich as I may have been, I have always lived like a
poor man." He dined off a crust of bread which he
ate in the midst of his labours, and slept little,
generally going to bed in his clothes and high boots,
and often sharing his room, and even his bed, with
his assistants. A poet and a dreamer by nature,
he devoted his spare moments to the study of
Dante and Petrarch's poetry and the composition
of sonnets, and his love of solitude, and irritable and
suspicious temper, made him shrink from the society
of others. Unlike Raphael, he formed no school,
and never confided the execution of his designs to
assistants. But to the few scholars such as Vasarif
Sebastian del Piombo or Daniele da Volterra, who
attached themselves to his person, his kindness and
generosity were unbounded, and both his letters and
sonnets reveal the depth of love and tenderness
in his heart.

On his return to Florence, Michelangelo received
an important commission from the Board of Works
of the Duomo, who charged him to make a colossal
statue out of a block of marble which had been spoilt
by an inferior sculptor some years before. From this
mis-shapen block, Michelangelo now carved his giant
David, and on the 25th of January, 1504, eighteen
leading Florentine masters met to choose a site for
the new colossus. Sandro Botticelli and Cosimo
Rosselli recommended the Piazza of the Duomo,
Leonardo and the architect San Gallo were strongly
of opinion that the statue should be placed in the

346 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475-

shelter of the Loggia dei Lanzi, while Filippino and
Piero di Cosimo thought that the choice of the site
ought to be left to Michelangelo. This last proposal
was eventually adopted, and the David was set up on
the steps of the Palazzo Vecchio, where it stood for
more than three centuries. Once during a popular
tumult in 1527, the left arm of the statue was broken,
but the pieces were carefully picked up by Vasari,
and put together again sixteen years later. On the
whole, however, the colossus suffered very little
damage, and now stands in a hall in the Accademia,
where it was placed for greater security in 1873.

The success of this statue added enormously to
Michelangelo's reputation. Before it was completed,
important orders poured in upon him from all sides.
The Board of Works of the Duomo gave him a
commission for twelve life-sized statues of Apostles,
to stand inside the Cathedral, and Piero Soderini
ordered him to paint a fresco in the Council Hall,
opposite the work on which Leonardo was already
engaged. But only one Apostle was ever begun, —
the roughly-hewn St. Matthew, now in the court
of the Accademia — and the fresco was never painted.
The cartoon which Michelangelo designed, and at
which he worked during many months, both in 1 504
and in 1506, hung during several years together with
that of Leonardo in the Pope's hall, where it was
admired and copied by every artist of the day. After
this it was removed to the Medici Palace, and dis-
appeared, torn in pieces, according to Vasari, during
the confusion that reigned in the house at the time
of Giuliano de' Medici's death. A few drawings in
the Albertina at Vienna, and a chiaroscuro copy

1564I CARTOON OF THE BATHERS 347

by Aristotile di San Gallo, of a portion of the work
at Holkham Hall, are all that remain of this famous
composition which Cellini declares to have surpassed
the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The subject
chosen by Michelangelo was an incident in the war
with Pisa, when a troop of Florentine soldiers were
surprised by the foe, while they were bathing in the
Arno, and victoriously repulsed their assailants.
The representation of these groups of men and
youths, in every variety of attitude, some lying
asleep on the ground, or climbing up the banks,
and running to arms, while others are engaged in
a hand-to-hand fight, was admirably suited to
Michelangelo's genius, and the mastery with which
he accomplished his task excited universal admira-
tion among his contemporaries, and deepens the
regret we must feel for this irreparable loss.

Two smaller paintings of this period have fortun-
ately been preserved, and are the more precious, as
being the only genuine works of the kind still in exist-
ence. One is the unfinished Deposition of the National
Gallery, which formerly belonged to Cardinal Fesch,
and was discovered fifty years ago in a dealer's shop in
Rome. Several critics have disputed the authenticity
of this fine study, but the grandeur of the design and
fine modelling of the forms leave little room for doubt
on the subject. The figure of one of the Maries on
the right recalls Ghirlandajo's types, and reminds us
that he was Michelangelo's first master, while the
dead Christ bears a marked likeness to the marble
Pietk in St. Peter's. The other picture of this period
is the tondo of the Holy Family, which he painted in
1504, for his friend Angelo Doni. This wealthy but

348 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475-

parsimonious patron, whose features are familiar to us
in Raphael's portrait, sent Michelangelo forty florins,
instead of the sixty for which he had asked, upon
which the master returned the money indignantly,
and demanded him to send back the picture. Angelo
Doni, however, knew the value of the work too well
to let it go, and after a prolonged wrangle, he sent
Michelangelo seventy florins, and kept the painting
which now adorns the Tribune of the Uflizi. It is
a singularly powerful and original work, characteristic
alike of the master's defects and qualities. The
Virgin, a strong handsome young Tuscan peasant-
woman, kneels on the ground, and turns round with
uplifted arms to receive the Child from St. Joseph.
Behind a parapet, the young St. John is seen fixing
his eager gaze on the Child, and five nude youths
are introduced, sitting or leaning on a balustrade in
the background. The figures are admirably fore-
shortened, and their complicated attitudes are ren-
dered with consummate skill, while the nudes in
their manly beauty are prototypes of the genii of
the Sistina. There is little of Raphael's charm, or
of Leonardo's suavity, but the expression of the
Virgin's upturned face is noble and reverent, and
the whole group is marked by a severe majesty
that is highly characteristic of the artist.

Early in 1505, Michelangelo was called to Rome
by the new Pope Julius II., and entered on the
second period of his career. The rest of his long
life was spent in the service of successive pontiffs,
and his best years were wasted in planning vast
schemes, never destined to be realised, for these
Imperious and changeable masters. Julius II., in

1564] TOMB OF JULIUS 11. 349

his passion for gigantic works, began by employing
him to construct a colossal monument for his own
tomb. This huge structure was to stand in the
tribune of St. Peter's, and was to be adorned with
countless statues and reliefs, illustrating the Pope's
triumphs. But this elaborate project was never
carried out. The Tragedy of the Tomb, as Condivi
calls it, dragged its weary course through forty years,
and embittered Michelangelo's whole life. The Pope
sent him to quarry marbles at Carrara, and took a
childish delight in counting the cart-loads of masonic
blocks which reached the Vatican. He paid constant
visits to the sculptor's shop, gave him a house to live
in, and loaded him with favours. But whether his
thoughts were absorbed by his new campaign against
Bologna, or whether, as Michelangelo firmly believed,
his mind was poisoned by the jealous intrigues of
Bramante, he soon grew tired of this scheme, and
treated the artist with neglect. One day Michel-
angelo, being in urgent need of money, asked to
see His Holiness, and was turned away by a groom.
" Tell the Pope," he exclaimed, " that the next time
he wants me, he will find me elsewhere." That
evening he left Rome for Florence, and neither the
Pope's commands, nor the prayers of his friends, could
induce him to return. Julius sent no less than three
papal briefs to the Signory, demanding that Michel-
angelo should be given up to him, and it was not
until the Gonfaloniere told the artist that the city
could not go to war on his account, that he consented
to obey the Pope's summons. In November, 1506,
he joined the pontiff at Bologna, and spent the next
year in making a bronze statue of His Holiness,

350 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI Ci47S-

which was placed over the doors of S. Petronio,
but which was unfortunately destroyed in a popular
tumult three years later.

In March, 1508, Michelangelo returned to Rome,
hoping to resume his work on the statues of the
Tomb, but the Pope ordered him to abandon sculpture
for the present and paint the roof of the Sistine
Chapel. In vain Michelangelo declared that painting
was not his trade, and that Raphael of Urbino was
the right man for the work. Julius insisted, and the
artist reluctantly began to prepare cartoons for his
mighty task. When we consider the immense extent
of the chapel roof, and the variety of curves, spandrels,
and pendentives which break up its surface, when we
remember that this vast space contains some two
hundred figures of colossal height, and recall the
marvellous beauty and animation of the whole, we
begin to realise the stupendous greatness of the work
which Michelangelo executed almost entirely alone.
The able artists whom he had summoned from
Florence to act as his assistants, including Granacci,
Bugiardini and Aristotile di San Gallo, failed to
satisfy his requirements, and were summarily dis-
missed. But in spite of endless troubles and
disappointments, Michelangelo succeeded in accom-
plishing the whole work in the space of four years
and a half His letters during this time unfold a
piteous tale of petty grievances and wrongs. His
enemies were busy at their old intrigues, his servants
cheated and annoyed him, and the Pope was absent
and short of money. Twice over Michelangelo had
to leave his work and travel to Bologna to beg
for supplies. Each time he returned without a

1564] THE SISTINE CHAPEL 351

farthing. At home his brothers were quarrelsome
and wasteful, and treated their old father unkindly.
On all sides people seemed to conspire to vex and
thwart him.

"I am living here in discontent," he wrote in June, 1508,
" never well and undergoing great fatigues ; without money
or friends."

And, the following January, in a letter to his father,
he says :

"I am still all perplexed, for I have not received any
money whatever from the Pope, and I do not ask him for
any, as my work is not far enough advanced to receive pay-
ment. This is because of the difficulty of the work and
because such painting is not my profession, so I waste my
time in vain. God help me ! "

On the Feast of All Saints, 1 509, a portion of the
vault was uncovered to satisfy the Pope's impatience,
and excited general admiration. But the work was
still far from being complete, and the great master
had still many difficulties to overcome.

"I am suffering greater hardships than ever man en-
dured," he wrote in a black fit of despondency in July, 15 12.
"I am ill and overwhelmed with labour. But I put up
with all, if only I can reach the desired end."

A few weeks later he preached patience to his father,
who was grumbling at the over-heavy taxes which
the Florentines had to pay :

" If you are treated worse than others, refuse to pay.
Let them seize your goods and tell me. But if you are
treated the same as others, be patient and hope in God.
It is enough to have bread and to live, as I do, in the faith

^52 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475-

of Christ. I live humbly here and care little for the world's
honour. I endure great weariness and hopelessness, but so
it has been with me for the last fifteen years — I have never
known an hour's comfort. You have never believed how
hard I have tried to help you. God forgive us all ! I am
ready, as far as I can, to do the same as long as I live."

Through failure and despondency the great master
worked steadily on, and at length, in October, 1512,
the whole of the vault was uncovered, and all Rome
flocked to see the result of his labours. That day
Michelangelo's triumph was complete. Friends and
foes alike rejoiced over the magnificent work, and
Raphael was foremost among the painters who
recognised his rival's complete success. "Look at
Raphael," said Pope Julius to Sebastian del Piombo,
"who, after seeing Michelangelo's frescoes, immedi-
ately abandoned Perugino's manner and tried to
imitate that of Buonarroti." Michelangelo himself
announced the completion of the work to his father
in these simple words : " I have finished the painting
of the chapel. The Pope is very well satisfied, but
other things are not as I should wish."

The frescoes of the Sistina were the grandest
achievement of Michelangelo's art. In them we
see the most sublime manifestation of his creative
faculties and technical powers, produced at a time
when he was in the fulness of bodily strength and
mental vigour. Whether we regard the artistic
beauty and grandeur of the decoration, or the intel-
lectual conception of the scheme, the work is alike
marvellous. The whole story of Creation, of the
Fall of Man and the Deluge is set forth in the nine
large compartments of the central vault. On the

1564] THE SISTINE CHAPEL 353

spandrels in the angles of the roof, four special
mercies to God's people — the Brazen Serpent, the
Death of Goliath, the Punishment of Haman, and
the Triumph of Judith — are represented as types
of the world's redemption. Twelve figures of Sibyls
and Prophets in the spaces between the windows,
bear witness to the coming of Christ, and the lunettes
above are filled with family groups of the royal line
of David and ancestors of the Virgin Mary. But
Michelangelo's labours did not end here. After un-
folding the story of the great Christian epic on the
stone vault, he filled up the angles, curves, and
cornices of the roof with nude forms of youths and
children in every variety of attitude. And there,
prominent among this great army of living creatures,
he placed those twenty heroic figures, in whose youth-
ful strength and loveliness we see the most perfect
expression of the painter's dream.

Unfortunately, just at this moment when Michel-
angelo's powers were at their best and his style was
fully developed, his time and strength were frittered
away upon a series of architectural and engineering
schemes which consumed the most precious years of
his life. Four months after the completion of the
Sistina frescoes, Julius II. died, and was succeeded
by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who assumed the
title of Leo X. The new Pope, who had known
Michelangelo as a boy in his father's home, was
anxious to employ him for his own ends, and, in
1 5 14, he summoned him to erect a fa9ade for the
church of S. Lorenzo in Florence.

During the last year, Michelangelo had devoted

all his energies to the Tomb of Julius II., and had

z

^

354 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [1475-

produced the famous Moses and the two Slaves of
the Louvre which, in perfection of manly beauty, rival
the genii of the Sistina, while in power of expression
they equal his finest works in marble. It was with
the greatest reluctance that he once more abandoned
his unfinished work at the new Pope's command, and
left Rome "with tears in his eyes." In spite, how-
ever, of his repeated protests that architecture was
not his profession, he soon threw himself with habitual
energy into this new work, and wrote from Carrara,
where he was engaged in quarrying marbles with an
army of stone-cutters and road-makers under his
orders, that he " hoped with God's help to produce the
finest thing that Italy had ever seen." He built large
workshops in Florence, and brought huge columns
and blocks of marble from Carrara and Serravezza.
Suddenly the Pope changed his mind and cancelled
the contract for the facade, to the bitter indignation
of the master, who justly complained of the insult to
himself, and of the cruel waste of his time and powers
during these five years. But Leo X. had never fully
appreciated Michelangelo's work, and found, as he
said to Sebastian del Piombo, that he was too terrible
a man for him.

The next Medici Pope, Clement VII., employed
the great master to build the Laurentian Library
and design the new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, to
contain the tombs of his kinsmen. The interior
of the Sacristy was to be decorated with frescoes
and bas-reliefs, and six sarcophagi placed in the
midst, adorned with portrait-statues of the great
Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano, of Popes Leo X.
and Clement VII., and of the Dukes of Urbinc

v%

1564] TOMBS OF THE MEDICI 555

and Nemours. As before, however, Michelangelo
found himself sadly hampered in the execution of
his project, and although Clement treated him with
more consideration than his predecessors, his kindly
intentions were frustrated by the disastrous events of
1527. Rome was taken and sacked by the Imperial
troops, the Medici were expelled from Florence, and
a Republic was once more proclaimed. Two years
later, Charles V. made peace with Clement, and
Florence was sacrificed to the Pope's vengeance.
In 1529, the Imperial armies besieged the city, and
Michelangelo was appointed director of the fortifica-
tions by the Signoria. He took an active part in the
defence, and traces of the works which he constructed
on the heights of San Miniato are still in existence.
All through the siege, however, he worked in secret
at the Medici tombs, and when Florence was betrayed
to her foes, and the Imperial troops entered the city
in August, 1530, he was left at liberty, by the Pope's
orders, in order that he might resume his work in
S. Lorenzo. His plans for the decoration of the
Sacristy were never carried out, his colossal Madonna
remains unfinished, and the figures of Cosimo and
Damiano were executed by assistants. But his
statues of the two dukes, and recumbent figures
of Night and Day, Twilight and Dawn, are among
the grandest works of Renaissance sculpture. There
is no attempt at portraiture. As he said himself:
" Who will care in another thousand years if these
features are theirs or not ? " This warrior Duke, with
the helmet overshadowing his dark face, as, wrapt in
gloomy meditation, he broods over the doom of
Florence this martial youth with the b^ton on

3S6 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475

his knee, waiting to rise and go forth, these weary
Titans reclining at their feet, are immortal allegories
of life and death, of thought and action. In this
Dawn, wearily waking out of sleep, in this Night
sunk in death-like slumber, Michelangelo gave utter-
ance to the grief and shame of his own soul, and
the burden of his eternal regrets. If anything were
needed to tell us this, the lines which he wrote
on the Notte^ would be enough to show the thoughts
that were working in his brain, when, at the
bidding of a Medici Pope, he carved these marbles
within the walls of captive Florence.

" Caro m'6 il sonno, e piu Pesser di sasso,
Mentre il danno e la vergogna dura :
Non veder, non sentir, m'6 gran ventura
Per5 non mi destar. Deh 1 parla basso I"

"Good it is to slumber, and better still to be marble.
Not to see, not to feel, is fortunate in these days of shame and
misery. Therefore, do not wake me. Speak low, I pray you !"

In his early works, drawing his inspiration from
antique marbles, Michelangelo had given expression to
the radiant beauty and god-like strength of manhood ;
in the masterpieces of his middle period, the pride of
life, the moral and physical sovereignty of man, had
been the thought that was uppermost in his mind. In
the creations of his latter days we read the sens©
of revolt and resistance, of scorn and suffering,
which opposition and injustice had aroused in his
breast, until last of all, every other feeling gives
way to profound melancholy and unutterable weari-
ness, and the wish to see and feel nothing, to sleep
and wake no more.

In 1534, Michelangelo's father died at the age of

1564] THE LAST JUDGMENT 357

ninety, and after writing a touching poem to his
memory, the great master left Florence. He never
saw his native city again, and the remaining thirty
years of his life were spent in Rome. Two days
after his arrival Clement VII. died, and the first
act of his successor, Paul III., was to appoint Michel-
angelo chief architect, sculptor and painter of the
Vatican. At his command the great master painted
the Last Judgment on the wall above the altar of
the Sistine Chapel. This fresco was uncovered on
Christmas day, 1541, and the fame of Michelangelo's
latest work spread throughout Italy. It is impossible
to judge this celebrated work fairly, in its present
ruined state. Time and neglect, smoke and grime,
the decorator's hand and the restorer's brush, have
irreparably destroyed the colour, and we can only
study the details of that scheme of composition
which excited the wonder of his contemporaries.
What Vasari describes as the grand style, " con-
summate knowledge of the human form, absolute
perfection of proportions, and the greatest possible
variety of attitudes, passions, and emotions," are
certainly seen here. But the subject was little suited
to Michelangelo's genius, and in spite of its vigorous
conception and execution, the work bears evident
signs of fatigue and discontent. The living fire that
animates every face and form of the countless host
on the vault overhead, is lacking here. The painter's
science has become more barren, his types are cold
and lifeless. The same dulness and formalism strike
us still more forcibly in the frescoes of the Martyrdom
of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul, which
Michelangelo painted in the Cappella Paolina of

358 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475-

the Vatican, a short time before the Pope's death.
Here the faces are cold and inexpressive, and the
figures, in spite of their violent action and distorted
attitudes, are wanting in life and vigour. The decay
of power is evident, and we think sadly of the seven
years of " great effort and fatigue " which they cost
the aged master. When he finished these frescoes,-
Michelangelo was already seventy-five, and as he
told Vasari, "fresco-painting was not fit work for
old men."

His last years were chiefly devoted to architectural
works. In 1547, Paul III. appointed him architect of
St. Peter's, and he held this office under five successive
Popes, without accepting any salary, "solely out of
love to God and reverence for the Prince of the
Apostles." In vain Duke Cosimo de* Medici sent
Vasari and Cellini to implore him to return to
Florence. No offers or entreaties could induce him
to desert his post.

" I was set to work upon St. Peter's against my will," he
wrote, "and I have served eight years without wages, and
with great injury and discomfort to my health. Now that
the work is being pushed forward and I am on the point of
vaulting in the Cupola, my departure from Rome would ruin
the structure and would be a great disgrace to Christendom,
and a grievous sin on my part."

After Michelangelo's death, however, the building
was entirely re- modelled, the plan of a Latin cross was
substituted for the Greek one which he had designed,
and Bernini's modern fagade was allowed to destroy
the imposing effect of the cupola which he had
modelled. It is only when we look down on the

15^4] VITTORIA COLONNA 359

dome of St. Peter's from the seven hills of Rome or
the far plains of the Campagna that we realise the
glory of Michelangelo's last great creation. To the
end his brain was busy with vast projects. The
completion of the Famese palace and the recon-
struction of the Capitol were among the labours of
his closing years. He it was who placed the
equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the pedestal
in the centre of the Piazza and designed the flight
of steps leading up to Ara Coeli, and the grand stair-
case of the Palazzo del Senatore.

The tragic fate which had attended so many of
Michelangelo's grandest works, above all, the infinite
trouble and perpetual quarrels which arose over the
unfinished Tomb of Julius II., clouded his last years
with a sense of gloom and failure.

"My whole youth and manhood have been lost," he
wrote on one occasion, " tied down to this tomb. Painting
and sculpture, labour and good faith have been my ruin,
and I go steadily from bad to worse. Better would it have
been for me, if I had learnt to make matches in my youth.
At least I should not suffer such distress of mind as I do
now."

But his friendship with Vittoria Colonna threw a ray
of light on his sorrowful old age. Michelangelo first
met the widowed Marchesa of Pescara in 1438, when
she was living in a Benedictine convent in Rome,
spending her time in devotional exercises and writing
poetry, and enjoying the society of a few serious
thinkers such as Ochino and Contarini, who had been
strongly influenced by the movement of the Reforma-
tion. The great master, who read his Bible constantly
and retained his old veneration for Savonarola, found

36o MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i475-

in this illustrious lady a friend who shared his deepest
thoughts. Together they talked of art and poetry,
of God and the soul. When she paid her yearly visits
to Orvieto and Viterbo, she wrote frequent letters to
her " more than dearest friend," and he in return sent
her sonnets and drawings of Crucified Christs and
Pietks.

" I had the greatest faith in God," she writes, in acknow-
ledging one of these, "that He would bestow upon you
supernatural grace for the making of this Christ. The
design is in all parts perfect and consummate, and I could
not desire more. I tell you that I am greatly pleased to
see the angel on the right hand is by far the fairer, since he,
Michael, will place you, Michelangelo, upon the right hand
of our Lord on that last day. Meanwhile, I cannot serve
you better than by praying to this sweet Christ, whom you
have drawn so well and perfectly, and begging you to hold
me ever at your service."

Michelangelo often took part in the Sunday gather-
ings at the Marchesa's rooms, where churchmen and
scholars met to discuss literary and aesthetic subjects,
and the painter, Francesco d'Olanda, has recorded
some interesting fragments of the great man's con-
versation. His defence of the eccentricities of artists
is very characteristic, and is in reality an apology for
his own habits :

" You accuse painters of being rude and ill-mannered,
but the fact is, they are bound to refrain from idle com-
pliments because their art claims their whole energies. I can
assure your Excellency that even His Holiness annoys me
sometimes, by asking me why I do not appear more often
in his presence. Then I tell him that I can serve him
better by working at home than by dancing attendance for

1564] VIEWS ON ART 361

a whole day in his reception-rooms. Happily, the serious
labours of my life give me so much liberty that in talking
to the Pope, I often forget where I am, and put my hat on
my head. However, he does not put me to death on that
account, but treats me with indulgence, knowing that it is
just at such times that I am working the hardest to serve
him.''

The words recall a remark which is said to have
been made by Pope Clement VII. : —

" When Buonarroti comes to see me, I always take a seat
and beg him to be seated, feeling sure that he will do so
without waiting for my leave.'*

Another time the Marchesa contrived to turn the
conversation on art, and asked Michelangelo if he held
it best for a painter to work slowly or quickly. He
replied that no doubt artists who could paint rapidly
without sacrificing any degree of excellence deserved
the highest praise, but that a good master would
never allow the impetuosity of his nature to mar the
perfection of his art. The one unpardonable fault, he
insists, is bad work. Speaking of religious art, he
took up Savonarola's argument and maintained, as he
had said before to the sculptor Ammanati, that " good
Christians always make good and beautiful figures.
In order to represent the adored image of our Lord,
it is not enough that a master should be great and
able. I maintain that he must also be a man of
good morals and conduct, if possible a saint, in order
that the Holy Ghost may give him inspiration."

Vittoria Colonna died in 1547, and Michelangelo
poured out his love and grief in the sonnets which he
wrote at the time, and in a touching letter in which

$62 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [i47S-

he says : " She felt the greatest affection for me and
I not less for her. Death has robbed me of a dear
friend." And he told Condivi how much he regretted
that when he took leave of her as she lay dying, he
had only kissed her hand and not her forehead. The
religious feelings which his intercourse with her had
deepened, found expression in those drawings of
Crucified Christs and Pietas which are still to be seen
in many collections. The great picture which he had
in his mind at the time was never painted, but his
idea was partly realised in the unfinished marble Pieti
behind the high altar in the Duomo of Florence, which
he originally intended for his own tomb. And the
pathetic sonnet which he sent to Vasari when he was
past eighty is the last and most sublime expression of
the tired soul turning back to God.

" Ne' pinger ne scolpir fia piu' che queti,
L'anima volta a quell' Amor Divino
Ch' aperse a prender noi in croce le braccia."

" Neither painting nor sculpture can any longer bring peace
to the soul that seeks the Divine Love which opened its arms
on the cross to receive us."

The correspondence of the aged master with his
nephew Leonardo gives us many interesting details
about his last years. His tone is often querulous and
irritable, but he is full of concern for his nephew's
happiness. He improved the old family house in the
Via Ghibellina — now the Museo Buonarroti — and was
very anxious that his race should not die out Art he
had always said was the only wife he needed, and the
works he left behind him would be his children.
" Woe to Ghiberti if he had not made the gates of
San Giovanni. His children soon squandered his

1564] HIS LAST DAYS 363

fortune, but the gates are still in their places." But
he urged his nephew to marry, and was much gratified
when, in May, 1554, Leonardo's wife bore him a son.
Vasari sent him an account of the christening festivi-
ties, and he thanked him for thinking of the poor
old man in Rome, but complained there had been too
much pomp and show, and told his nephew that he
had done wrong in " celebrating a birth with a mirth
and rejoicing that should rather be reserved for the
death of one who has lived well." In these last days
of increasing feebleness he spent much of his time in
reading Savonarola's sermons, and often spoke of the
great Friar whom he honoured as the champion of
the liberties of Florence and of the faith of Christ

In 1555, he suffered a heavy loss in the death of his
faithful servant Urbino, over whom he sorrowed
deeply,

" Even more than dying," he wrote to Vasari, " it grieved
him to leave me alive in this treacherous world, with so
many troubles, and yet the better part of me is gone with
him."

He lingered on eight years, tenderly cared for
by his friends Condivi and Tommaso Cavalieri and
the artist Daniele da Volterra, until the i8th of Feb-
ruary, 1564, when he passed quietly away at the hour
of the Ave Maria, begging his friends, when their
last hour came, to " think upon the sufferings of Jesus
Christ."

So entirely did the Romans consider Michelangelo
to be one of themselves, that they made preparations
for his burial in the SS. Apostoli, and his nephew
Leonardo was obliged to remove the body by night

364 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI [1475-1564

from the church and send it secretly to Florence.
On the evening of the 12th of March, the members
of Duke Cosimo's new Academy, which had chosen
Michelangelo for their first President, bore the illus-
trious dead in solemn procession to Santa Croce.
Here, four months later, an imposing funeral service
was held, and the tasteless monument erected by
Vasari bore witness to the general decadence of art
in Italy.

Michelangelo had outlived all the painters of his
generation. Raphael had been dead forty-four years,
Leonardo forty-five, and of all the illustrious company
who had met to choose the site of David, sixty years
before, not one was left. With him the race of giants
who had made the sixteenth century famous passed
away. Before his death, Florence had already lost
much of her old glory, and had ceased to be the home
of art and culture and the centre of Italian civiliza-
tion. Her great days were over, and, deprived of
freedom and independence, the city of Dante and
Savonarola sank into obscurity and insignificance.
The arts which had blossomed on the banks of Arno
during three centuries and more, fell into decay, and
the great movement of the Renaissance reached its
appointed end.

Chief Works—

Florence. — Uffizi : 1 139. Holy Family.
Rome. — Sistine Chapel: Frescoes — Ceiling: Story of
Creation, Fall of Man, Deluge, Brazen
Serpent, David and Goliath, Haman, Judith,
Prophets and Sibyls.— ^. Wall: Last
Judgment
», Cappella Paolina : Frescoes — Conversion of
St. Paul, Martyrdom of St. Peter.
London. — National Gallery: 790. Deposition (unfinidied).

INDEX

ACCIAIUOLI, Margherita, 322
Acciauioli, Niccol6, 126, 127
Agnolo, Andrea d', 313 (see Sarto)
Albertinelli, Mariotto, 301 ; his
friendship with Fra Bartolommeo,
288 ; enters into partnership with
him, 293, 304 ; character, 301 ;
early works, 302 j the Visitation,
302 ; fresco of the Crucifixion,
303; gives up painting, 305;
last works, 305 ; death, 305 ;
pupils, 306 ; list of his chief
works, 309
Albertini, his " Memorials," 8, 125,

275
Albizzi, Giovanna degli, 207, 237

Albizzi, Rinaldo degli, 88

Allosio, Enrico di, 84

Amboise, 265

S. Ambrogio, frescoes in, 179

Andrea, Guisto di, 171

Angelico, Fra, 100 ; character,
loi ; enters the Dominican
Order, 102 ; birth, 102 ; works
at Cortona, 103 ; Annunciation,
104 ; pictures of the Coronation,
104-106 ; the Last Judgment,
106 ; the Tabernacle, 107 ; pre-
dellas, 107 ; frescoes in San
Marco, 108- 112; Descent from
the Cross, 112; in Rome, 113;
Orvieto, 113; frescoes in the
Pope's Oratory, 1 14 ; Prior of
Fiesole, 115; death, 115; list
of his chief worksj 116

Annunziata, frescoes in the Court

of the, 314, 329, 332
S. Antoninus, Archbishop of

Florence, 115
Antonio, Pier, 164
Architecture, classical introduction

of, 74
Arena Chapel, Padua, frescoes in

the, 25
Aretino, Spinello, 68 ; his frescoes,

68 ; list of his chief works, 72
Arezzo, 51
Assisi, St. Francis of, founder of the

Italian Renaissance, 3
Assisi, frescoes in the Lower and

Upper Churches at, 8, 13, 20, 22

25, 54

Bacchiacca, 330 ; his paintings,
331 ; list of his chief works,

334

Baldovinetti, Alesso, 137 ; varied
occupations, 138 ; fresco of the
Nativity, 138; landscapes, 138;
method of colouring, 139; panel-
pictures, 139 ; altar-piece of the
Trinity, 140 ; frescoes in the
choir of the Trinity, 140 ; enters
the hospital of S. Paolo, 141 ;
death, 141 ; list of his chief
works, 142

Banco, Nanni di, I02

Banco, Tommaso di, 53 (set
Giottino)

Bandello, Matteo, 145, 256

3e&

3^6

INDEX

Bardi, Ridolfo de, 37

Barile, 313

Bartolommeo, Fra, 181, 287 ; his
friendship with Albertinelli, 288 ;
devotional pictures, 288 ; a
follower of Savonarola, 289 ;
fresco of the Last Judgment,
290 ; Vision of St. Bernard, 290 ;
influence of Raphael and Leo-
nardo, 291 ; in Venice, 292 ;
altar-pieces, 292 ; enters into
partnership with Albertinelli,
293 ; the Holy Family and other
pictures, 294, 297-299 ; altar-
piece for the Hall of the Great
Council, 295 ; in Rome, 296 ;
Deposition, 299 ; last works,
299 ; death, 299 ; list of his chief
works, 299

Beatis, Antonio de, on his visit to
Cloux, 266

Beltraffio, 265

Benci, Jacopo d' Antonio, 183

Benedetto, Fra, 103

Benivieni, 273

Benozzo, 113 {see Gozzoli)

Benson Mr., 239

Benvenuto da Imola, 25, 73

Berenson, Mr., 55, 180, 193, 282

Bicci, Neri de', 177

Bigordi, Tommaso, 229

Billi, Salvator, 298

Boccaccio, 25, 39

Bondone, Giotto di, 11 {see Giotto)

Bonfigli, 135

Boniface, Pope, 19

Borgherini, Piero Francesco, 322

Borgherini Palace, decoration of the
nuptial chamber, 307, 322, 332

Bottari, 294

Botticelli, Sandro, 196 ; popularity,
197 ; Adoration of the Magi, 198,
202, 206 ; the Fortezzay 198 ;
Judith, 198; St. Sebastian, 199;
at Pisa, 199 ; Birth of Venus,
200 ; Mars and Venus, 200 ; the
Primavera, 201 ; Pallas subduing
the Centaur, 201 ; paintings for
the Vespucci, 203 ; in Rome,
203 ; frescoes in the Sistine

Chapel, 204-206 ; Madonnas, 206,
208 ; frescoes in the Villa Lemmi,
207 ; follower of Savonarola, 207;
tondo of the Magnificat, 208 ; an
unfinished picture, 209; the
Calumny, 211; Nativity, 211;
illustrations of the Divina Corn-
media, 212 ; death, 213 ; list of
his chief works, 213

Brancacci, Felice, 78

Brancacci Chapel, frescoes in the,
78, 91, 94-98, 216-218

Brizio, San, Chapel of, 113, 162

Bronzino, 332 ; character of his
paintings, 333; portraits, 333;
list of his chief works, 335

Brunellesco, 14, 90, 98 ; portrait of,

Bugiardini, Giuliano, 302, 306 ; the
Rape of Dinah, and other works,
306 ; list of his chief works,

309
Buonarroti, 337 {see Michelangelo)
Buti, Lucrezia, 150, 215
Byzantine painting, influence of, 2

Calixtds hi.. Pope, 149

Cambio, Arnolfo di, 4

Campello, Fra Filippo di, 14

Caprese, Castle of, 340

Caraffa, Cardinal, 219

Carmine, Brancacci Chapel, frescoes
in the, 78, 91, 94-98, 216-218

Carondelet, Ferry, 295

Carrara, Francesco di, 34, 41, 57

Carrucci, Jacopo, 331 {see Pontormo)

Casentino, Jacopo di, founds the
Guild of Painters, 51

Castagno, Andrea del, 125 ; char-
acter, 126 ; decoration of a hall
in the Villa Pandolfini, 126 ;
frescoes of the Last Supper, 127,
128; death, 128; list of his chief
works, 129

Castel S. Giovanni, 89

Castiglione, Cardinal Branda di, 80

Castiglione, Sabb^ da, 248

Castiglione, frescoes at^ 80 ; the
Baptistery, 82-84

Cavalcaselle, 54, 59

INDEX

367

Cavalieri, Tommaso, 363

Caversaio, 51

Cellini, Benvenuto, 182, 262, 265

Cenni, Giovanni, 5 (see Cimabue)

Cennini, Cennino, his "Treatise on
Painting," 56-59

Chimenti, Lorenzo, 278

Cimabue, 5 ; his Rucellai Madonna,
6 ; other paintings, 7 ; frescoes at
Assisi, 8 ; at Pisa, 9 ; list of his
chief works, 10

Cione, Andreadi, i9o(x« Verrocchio)

Cione, Michele di, 190

Clement VII., Pope, 325, 354, 361

S. Clemente, Rome, frescoes in, 84

Cloux, Hotel de, 265

Colleoni, Bartolommeo, equestrian
statue of, 194

Colonna, Vittoria, friendship with
Michelangelo, 359 ; death, 361

Condivi, 349, 363

Contarini, 359

Cook, Sir Francis, 298, 331

Corniole, Giovanni della, 274

Corvinus, Matthias, King of Hun-
gary, 219

Cosimo, Angelo di, 332 (see Bron-
zino)

Cosimo, Piero di, 278 j frescoes in
the Sistine Chapel, 179, 278;
altar-pieces, 279, 280; tempera
pictures, 280 ; influenced by
Leonardo, 281 ; portrait of ** la
bella Simonetta," 282 ; other
portraits, 282 ; character, 284 ;
death, 285 ; list of his chief
works, 285

Credi, Lorenzo di, 194, 270; works
under Andrea Verrocchio, 271 ;
panels of sacred subjects, 271 ;
style and character of his paint-
ings, 272 ; early works, 272 ;
follower of Savonarola, 273 ;
popularity, 274 ; Adoration of the
Shepherds and the Madonna and
Saints, 274 ; later works, 275 ;
retires to S. Maria Nuova, 275 ;
his will, 275 ; death, 276 ; por-
traits, 276 ; list of his chief works,
277

Cristoforo, Francesco di, 329 {see
Franciabigio)

Croce, Santa, frescoes in, 34 ; the
Peruzzi Chapel, 35; Bardi
Chapel, 37 ; Baroncelli Chapel,
49 ; Rinuccini Chapel, $2 j
Chapel of S. Silvestro, 53

Cronaca, 274

Dagomari, Michele, 56

Dante, 20, 25 ; portrait of, 163 ;

his Divina Commedia, 212
Diamante, Fra, 155, 215
Dini, Gerozzo, 290, 302
Divina Commedia, illustrations of

the, 213
Donatello, 74, 90, lOO ; portrait of,

119
Doni, Angelo, 298, 347
Dono, Paolo di, 1 18 {see Uccello)

Elsa, Colle di Val d', 56, 77

Empoli, Jacopo da, 327

Este, Alfonso d', Duke of Ferrara,

299
Este, Isabella d', 259, 343
Eugenius IV., Pope, 113

Fattorino, Paolo, 287

Fede, Lucrezia del, 319, 327

Federighi, Benozzo, 210

Ferrara, Jacopo da, 258

Fetti, Fra Mariano, 296

Ficino, Marsilio, 100

Filarete, 135

Filipepi, Alessandro, 197

Fina, Santa, frescoes in the Chapel
of, 231

Fino, Tommaso di Cristoforo di,
77 {see Masolino)

Firenze, Andrea da, 59 ; frescoes in
the Spanish Chapel of Santa
Maria Novella, 60-62 ; in the
Campo Santo, Pisa, 66; list of
his chief works, 7 1

F'lorence, the Campanile, 44 ; con-
dition, 48, 74 ; outbreak of
plague, 48, 323, 327 ; decoration
of the Council Hall, 261, 295 ; be-
sieged by the Imperial troops, 355

368

INDEX

Florentine painting, origin of, i ;

influence of Byzantium, 2 ; the

Gothic movement, 4
Forese, Messer, 39
Franceschi, Piero dei, 133, 137, 139
Francesco, Giovanni di Pier, 223
Franciabigio, 315, 329; his frescoes,

329 ; portraits, 330 ; list of his

chief works, 333
Francis I., 265, 298, 320
Fresco, method of painting, 72
Frizzoni, Signor, 186, 3^1
Fry, Roger E., 141

Gaddi, Agnolo, 55 ; his frescoes on
the legend of the True Cross, 55 ;
in the Chapel of the Holy Girdle
at Prato, 56 ; death, 56 ; list of
his chief works, 71
Gaddi, Gaddo, 49
Gaddi, Taddeo, 49 ; his frescoes in
the Baroncelli Chapel, 49 ; death,
51 ; list of his chief works, 71
Gallo, Jacopo, 344
Gherardo, 75 {see Stamina)
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 8, 11, 14, 53, 118
Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 229 ; char-
acter of his painting, 230 ; fresco
of the Madonna della Misericor-
dia, 230 ; in Rome, 230 ; at Pas-
signano, 231 ; frescoes in the
Chapel of Santa Fina, 231 ; St.
Jerome, 232 ; the Last Supper,
232; Triumph of St. Zenobius,
233 ; in Rome, 234 ; frescoes of
St. Francis in the Trinit^, 234 ;
the Nativity, 235 ; frescoes in S.
Maria Novella, 236 ; the Corona-
tion, 237 ; Adoration, 237 ; Visi-
tation, 238 ; panel-portraits, 238 ;
altar-pieces, 239 ; death, 239 ;
list of his chief works, 240
Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo, 307 ; early
works, 307 ; court painter and
architect, 308; list of his chief
works, 310
Gianfigliazzi, Bongianni, 140
San Gimignano, frescoes at, 168;
in the Chapel of Santa Fina, 231
Giocondo, Francesco del, 263

Giottino, 53; his frescoes in the
Chapel of S. Silvestro, 53 ; Piet^,
54 ; frescoes in the Lower Church
of Assisi, 54 ; death, 55 ; list of
his chief works, 7 1

Giotto di Bondone, 1 1 ; early works,
12; frescoes at Assisi, 15-17,20,
22-25; ^^ Rome, 17; mosaic of
the Navicella, 18 ; altar-piece,
18 ; portrait of Dante, 20 ; tone
of colouring, 21 ; characteristics,
21 ; frescoes in the Arena Chapel
at Padua, 25-32 ; appearance, 25,
frieze of Vices and Virtues, 32 ;
at Verona, 34 ; Florence, 34 ;
frescoes in Santa Croce, 34-38 ;
his children, 39 ; power of re-
partee, 40, 43 ; song on Volun-
tary Poverty, 41 ; industry, 41 ;
altar-piece of St. Francis receiving
the Stigmata, 42 ; in Naples, 42 ;
appointed Chief Architect of the
Cathedral Works, 43 ; Campanile,
44 ; ii Milan, 45 ; death, 45 ;
list of his chief works, 46 ; por-
traits, 119, 163

Giovanbattista, 331 {see Rosso)

Giovanni da Milano, 51, 52, 71

Giovanni, Fra, 103 {see Angelico)

Giovanni, Monte da, 274

Girolamo, Fra, 210

Goes, Hugo van der,his triptych, 230

Gonzaga, Lodovico, Marquis of
Mantua, 127

Gothic movement, 4

Gozzoli, Benozzo, 161 ; in Rome,
162 ; frescoes at Montefalco, 162 ;
the Medici Chapel, 164-166;
letters to Piero de Medici, 166,
167 ; altar-piece of the Madonna
and Saints, 168 ; frescoes on the
life of St. Augustine at San
Gimignano, 168-170 ; in the
Campo Santo, Pisa, 171-174 ;
children, 175 ; death, 175 ; list of
his chief works, 175

Granacci, Francesco, 216, 240, 306 ;
his Assumption and other works,
306, 307 ; list of his chief works,
310

INDEX

3^9

Gr^ville, M. Durand, 263
Guicciardini, Piero, 216
Guidalotti, Buonamico, $9
Gurck, Cardinal de, 256

Hamilton, Gavin, 252
Hardouin, M., 268
Hawkwood, John, equestrian por-
trait of, 121
Humboldt, on Leonardo da Vinci,

243
Hurault, Jacques, 294

Innocent VIII., Pope, 187

JDUDS II., Pope, 339, 348

Landini, 98

Landucci, 191

Lapaccia, Mona, 144

Lapo, Niccol6 di, 90, 98

Lapo, Ricco di, 39

Legnaia, Villa Pandolfini, 126

Leo X., Pope, 239, 264, 298, 315,
353 ; accession, 305

Leopardi, 195

Lippi, Fra Filippo, 143 ; character,
143 ; birth, 144 ; leaves the
monastery, 145 ; taken captive,
145 ; freaks and follies, 146 ;
appointed Rector of S. Quirico,
146 ; lunettes, 146 ; Madonnas,
147, 151 ; Coronation of the
Virgin, 148; poverty, 149; de-
prived of his benefice, 149; retires
to Prato, 149 ; falls in love, 150 ;
excommunicated, 152; frescoes at
Prato, 152 ; at Spoleto, 154 ; re-
cord of his death, 155 ; list of his
chief works, 156

Lippi, Filippino, his birth, 150,
215 ; early works, 215; frescoes
in the Brancacci Chapel, 216-218 ;
the Madonnas, 218 ; Vision of
St. Bernard, 218 ; in Rome, 219 ;
frescoes in Santa Maria Minerva,
219; return to Florence, 221;
Commissions, 221 ; Adoration of
the Magi, 223 ; marriage, 223 ;
fresco at Prato, 223 ; inferiority

of his later pictures, 224 ; frescoes
in the Strozzi Chapel, 224 ; De-
position, 225 ; death, 225 ; list of
his chief works, 226
Lomazzo, on Leonardo da Vinci,

243
Louis XII., 264

Mainardi, Sebastiano, 232, 240

Majano, Benedetto da, 181, 288

Manetti, Antonio, 98

Manetti, Giovanni, portrait of, 119

S. Marco, frescoes in, 108-112

S. Maria delle Grazic, Milan, fresco
of the Last Supper, 254

S. Maria Minerva, Rome, frescoes
in, 219

S. Maria Novella, 59 ; frescoes in
the Spanish Chapel, 59-62 ; the
Strozzi Chapel, 63, 224 ; the
Chiostro Verde, 121 ; in the
choir, 236

Martin V., Pope, 104

Martini, Simone, 59

Masaccio, SS ; character, 89 ; his
financial affairs, 90 ; style of his
paintings, 91 ; frescoes in the
Brancacci Chapel, 91, 94-98 ; the
Trinity, 93 ; St. Andrew, 93 ;
Adoration of the Magi, 94 ;
death, 98 ; list of his chief works,

Masolino, 77 5 his Madonnas, 77 ;
frescoes in the Carmine, 78; in
Hungary, 80 ; frescoes at Castig-
lione, 80 ; the Baptistery, 82-84 J
S. Clemente, 84 ; altar-piece at
Naples, 86 ; list of his chief
works, 87
Matteo, Domenico di, 125
Medici, Bernardetto de', 125
Medici, Carlo de', 152, 298
Medici, Cosimo de', 108, 131, 146,

165
Medici, Giovanni de', 151, 165
Medici Giuliano, de', 200, 264 ;

murdered, 201
Medici, Lorenzo de', 155, 165, 171,
187, 199, 341 ; his Ambra^ 201 ;
death, 342

2 A

370

INDEX

Medici, Lorenzo di Pierofrancesco
de', 343

Medici, Ottaviano de', 296, 315, 321

Medici, Piero de', 113, 165, 187 ;
letter from Domenico, 131 ; from
Benozzo Gozzoli, 166, 167 ; ex-
pelled from Florence, 343

Medici Chapel, decoration of the,
164-166

Meglio, Matteo di, 276

Melzi, Francesco, 265 ; on the death
of Leonardo da Vinci, 267

Michelangelo, 337 ; his study of
the human form, 338 ; preference
for sculpture, 339 ; birth and
early years, 340 ; apprenticed to
Ghirlandajo, 341 ; in the Medici
Palace, 341 ; bas-relief of the
Battle of the Centaurs, 342;
studies anatomy, 342; in Bol-
ogna, 343; the Sleeping Cupid,
343; various statues, 344; affec-
tion for his relatives, 344; mode
of living, 345; statue of David,
345 ; cartoon of the Bathers,
346 ; Deposition, 347 ; the Holy
Family, 347 ; in Rome, 348 ;
tomb of Julius IL, 349, 354;
frescoes in the Sistine Chapel,
350-353; hardships and diffi-
culties, 351; fa9ade for the
Church of S. Lorenzo, 353 ;
tombs of the Medicij 354-356;
fresco of the Last Judgment,

357 ; architect of St. Peter's,

358 ; friendship with Vittoria
Colonna, 359 ; defence of the
eccentricities of artists, 360 ;
views on art, 361 ; correspon-
dence with his nephew, 362 ; last
days, 363 ; death, 363 ; funeral,
364 ; list of his chief works, 364

Michelozzo, 108, 112

Migliorotti, Atalante, 248

Milan, S. Maria delle Grazie, fresco
of the Last Supper in, 254 ; entry
of the French, 258

Milano, Giovanni da, 51 ; his fres-
coes in the Rinuccini Chapel,
52; list of his chief works, 71

Mirandola, Pico della, lOO, 180
Mona Lisa, portrait of, 263
Monaco, Lorenzo, 69; his master-
piece the Coronation, 70 ; list of
his chief works, 72
Montefalco, frescoes at, 162
Montelupo, Baccio da, 292
Monti, Maddalena dei, 223
Morelli, 152, 159, 202, 309
Muntz, M., 268

Naples, King Robert of, 42

Nerli, Tanai di, 218

Nicholas V., Pope, 113 ; frescoes in
his Oratory, 114

Nuvolaria, Fra Pietro da, on Leon-
ardo da Vinci's cartoon of the
Madonna and St. Anne, 259

OCHINO, 359
Olanda, Francesco d', 360
Or' San Michele, tabernacle, 64
Orcagna, Andrea, 62 ; frescoes in
the Strozzi Chapel, 63 ; altar-
piece, 63 ; tabernacle in Or' San
Michele, 64 ; death, 65 ; list of
his chief works, 71
Orsini, Madonna Alfonsina, 302
Orvieto, Chapel of S. Brizio, 113

Pacioli, Luca, 251, 257

Padua, Arena Chapel, frescoes in,

25
Painters' Guild, founded, 51

Paiolo, or Cauldron, Club of the,
316

Palla, Giovanni Battista della, 297,
322, 326

Pandolfini Villa, decoration of a
hall in the, 126

Passignano, Vallombrosan monas-
tery at, 231

Paul IIL, 357

Pesellino, Francesco di, 157 ; his
predellas, 157 ; the story of
David, 158; death, 159; list of
his chief works, 159

St. Peter's, Rome, 358

Petrarch, 25, 42 ; portraits of, 1O3

Piagnone movement, 209, 273, 289

INDEX

371

Piombo, Sebastian del, 345

Pisa, Campo Santo, frescoes in the,

65, 171-174, 199

Pisano, Andrea, 44

Pisano, Niccola, 4

Pius II., Pope, 150.

Poliziano, Angelo, 45, 15SJ his
Giostray 200 ; Rusticus, 20 T

Pollaiuolo, Antonio, 182; his works
in bronze and silver, 1 83 ; mastery
of anatomy, 184; paintings, 184;
pictures of David, 185 ; St.
Sebastian, 185 ; Tobias, 186 ; in
Rome, 187; tombofSixtus IV.,
187 ; death, 1 88 ; list of his chief
works, 188

Pollaiuolo, Piero, 183 ; paintings,
184 ; portrait of Galeazzo Sforza,
184 ; fresco of St. Christopher,
185 ; tte Annunciation, 185 ;
Tobias, 186; in Rome, 188;
death, ^88 ; list of his chief
works, X89

Pontormo, 320, 322, 331 ; his fresco
of the Visitation and other works,
332 ; list of his chief works, 334

Porta, Baccio della, 182, 287 {see
Bartolommeo)

Portinari, Tommaso, 230

Prato, frescoes at, 56, 152, 223

Pratovecchio, 118

Predis, Ambrogio de, 252

Pucci, Antonio, 44, 186

Puccio, Pietro di, his frescoes, 68

Pugliese, Piero della, 216

Pulci, 216

Raphael, studies under Fra Barto-
lommeo, 291 ; his portrait of Leo
X., 32s

Raflfeiellino del Garbo, 226; Ma-
donna with Angels, a Resurrec-
tion, and the Piet^, 226 ; death,
226 ; list of his works, 228

Recanati, Carlo di, 320

Reiset, M., 282

Rejmolds, Sir Joshua, 254

Riario, Girolamo, 205

Richter, Dr., 7, 13, 247

Riccobaldi, 34

Robbia, Luca della, icx)

Rome, S. Clemente, frescoes in,

84; Sistine Chapel, 178,204; S.

Maria Minerva, 219 ; taken by

the Imperial troops, 355 ; St.

Peter's, 358
Rosselli, Cosimo, 177 ; his frescoes,

177 ; in the Sistine Chapel, 178 ;

in S. Ambrogio, 179 ; death,

180 J list of his chief works, 181
Rosso, 331 ; list of his chief works,

334
Rorere, Giuliano della, 205
Rucellai, Giovanni, 130
Rudolphus, Petrus, 8, 15, 24
Ruskin, Mr., 52
Rustici, 259, 315

Sacchetti, 40

Salai, 261, 265, 267

Salting, Mr., 277

S. Salvi, fresco in the convent of,

323

Salviati, Filippo, 294

San Giorgio, Cardinal di, 343

Sandro, Lese di, 162, 174

San Gallo, Giuliano di, 119

Sansovino, Jacopo, 315

Santi, Giovanni, 123, 125

Santi-Pagnini, Prior of San Marco,
290

Sarto, Andrea del, 312 ; character,
312 ; pupil of Piero di Cosimo,
313 ; bis panel of Christ appear-
ing to the Magdalene, 314 ;
frescoes on the life of St. Filippo
Benizzi, 314 ; of the Scalzo, 316,

321 ; lunette of the Madonna del
Sacco, 317 ; Annunciation, 318 ;
Dispute on the Trinity, 318;
Madonna delle Arpie, 319 ;
marriage, 319; in France, 320;
return to Florence, 321 ; decora-
tions of the Borgherini Palace,

322 ; Deposition, 323 ; fresco of
the Last Supper, 323 ; artificial
style, 324 ; portraits, 324 ; copy of
Raphael's portrait of Leo X., 325 ;
Sacrifice of Isaac, 326 ; death,
327; list of his chief works, 327

372

INDEX

Sassetti, Francesco, 235, 239
Sassetti Chapel, frescoes in, 234
Savonarola, 207, 273, 289
Scala, Can Grande della, 34
Scaizo, cloisters of the, frescoes on
the life of the Baptist, 316, 321,

329
Scolari, Filippo, 79, 80, 127, 129
Scrov^^o, Enrico, 25
Segni, Antonio, 211
Sforza, Caterina, 223
Sforza, Francesco, equestrian statue

of, 248
Sforza, Galeazzo, Duke of Milan,

life-size portrait of, 184
Sforza, Lodovico, Duke of Milan,

222, 248 ; his defeat and betrayal

to the French, 258
Signorelli, Luca, 162
Simonetta, 200 ; portrait of, 282 ;

death, 282
Sistine Chapel, frescoes in the, 178,

204, 278, 350, 352, 357
Sixtus IV., Pope, 178, 187, 191,

205
Soderim, Marco, 216
Soderini, Pioro, 264, 295
SpiDello, Parri, 69
Spini, Dofib, 210
Spoleto, frescoes at, 154
Stamina, Gherardo, 75 ; exiled to

Spain, 75 ; frescoes in the Car-
mine, 76 ; pupils, 76
Stefaneschi, Cardinal, 17
Steinmami, Dr., 204
Strambi, Domenico, 168
Strozzi, FUi{^, 221
Strozzi Chapel, frescoes in, 224
Stuhlweissenbuj^, 80

Talenti, Fra Jacopo, 59
Tempera^ or distemper, method of

painting, 72
Terrarossa, Paok) <M, 326
Tolentino, Niccol6 da, equestrian

portrait of, 127
Tommaso di San Giovanni, 89 [set

Masaccio)
TomabwHii Gioyanna, portrait <rf^

a}9

Tornabuoni, Giovanni, 207, 236

Tornabuoni, Lorenzo, 207, 238

Torrigiano, Piero, 341

Trinit^, Church of the, altar-piece
of the Descent of the Cross, 112;
frescoes in the choir, 140 ; in the
Chapel of the Sassetti, 234

Trowel, Society of the, 316

Ubertini, Francesco, 330 {.see
Bacchiacca)

Uccello, Paolo, 118; his study of
perspective, 119; love of soli-
tude, 119; pictures of animals,
120 ; battle-pieces, 120 ; Battle
of S. Egidio, 120 ; in Venice,
121 ; equestrian portrait, 121 ;
frescoes in the Chicstro Verde of
S. Maria Novella, 121 ; the
Miracle of the Host, 122 \ death,
123 ; list of his chief works,
123

Udny, John, 254

Umbrian Schoc^ 163

Uzzano, NicGol6 di, 88

Val Mugelk), 39, 103, 125
Vasari, on CimalMie, 5 ; Giotto, 18 ;
Giottino, 53 ; Antonio Veneziano,
67 ; Masolino, 86 ; Masaccio, 89,
91 ; Fra Angelico, 10 1 ; Paolo Uc-
cello, 119; Andrea del Castagno,
125 ; Alessio Baldovinetti, 138 ;
Fra Filippo Lip{X, 143 ; Cosimo
Rosselli, 179 ; Antonio Pol-
laiuolo's St. Sebastian, 185 ;
Andrea Verrocchio, 191 ; Filip-
pino LipjM, 225 ; Ghirlandajo,
234; Leotttirdo da Vinci, 242,
245 ; the portrait of Mona Lisa,
263 ; Piero di Cosimo, 278 ; Fra
Bartolommeo, 288 ; Albertinelli,
301 ; Andrea del Sarto, 312 ;
Franciabigio, 330 ; Michelangelo's
Last Judgment, 357
Veneziano, Antonio, 60, 67 ; his
frescoes in the Campo Santo,
Pisa, 67 ; list of his chief works,
72

INDEX

373

Veneziano, Domenico, 130 ; his
letter to Piero de' Medici, 131 ;
frescoes in S. Egidio, 132 ; altar-
piece, 133; frescoes, 134; death,
135; character, 135; list of his
chief works, 136

Verrocchio, Andrea, 190 ; his works
in bronze, 191 ; picture of the
Baptism, 192 ; the Annunciation,
192; portraits, 193; equestrian
statue, 194 ; pupils, 194 ; death,
195 ; list of his chief works, 195

Verrocchio, Giuliano, 190

Vespignano, 39

Vespucci, Amerigo, 230

Vicchio, 102

Villani, Giovanni, 20, 44, 53

Vinci, Leonardo da, 242 ; character,
242 ; " Treatise on Painting,"
243 ; ^irth and parents, 244 ; early
works, 245; cartoon of the Adora-
tion of the Magi, 246 ; love of
horses, 246 ; St. Jerome, 247 ; at
Milan, 247 ; equestrian statue,

248-250 ; varied occupations, 250,
260; "Vierge aux Rochers,"
251 ; cartoon of the Virgin and
St. Anne, 253, 259 ; the Last
Supper, 254-257 ; portraits, 257 ;
military engineer, 260 ; studies
mathematics, 260; decoration of
the Council Hall, 261 ; mode of
living, 261 ; portrait of Mona
Lisa, 263 ; at Milan, 264 ; Rome,
264 : works in France, 265 ;
death, 267 ; burial, 268 ; writings,
268 ; list of his chief works, 269
Visconti, Azzo, Lord of Milan, 45
Vite, Antonio, 76 ; his frescoes, 76
Volterra, Daniele da, 345, 363
Volterra, Francesco da, 65 ; his
frescoes in the Campo Santo, Pisa
66

WiCKHOFF, Dr., 6, 84
Willett, Mr. Henry, 239
Woltmann, Dr., 233

PCIMTRD AT THS KDMKVBGM PKJBSS, 9 AMD ZI TOUITG ST^ZET.

nj

\l

L_

3 1197 00262 7401

Date Due

'*"'">'•'"•}' items are

^"Skm Young Vniy,:,it